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Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

Emma Grae - Better Days

1st December 2020

Emma Grae is a Scottish author and journalist from Glasgow.
She has published fiction and poetry in the UK and Ireland since 2014 in journals including The Honest Ulsterman, From Glasgow to Saturn and The Open Mouse.
Most recently, her work was selected to be performed by Liars' League at two of their London-based events in 2020. 
Her first novel, be guid tae yer mammy, is being published by Unbound in May 2021.
https://unbound.com/books/be-guid-tae-yer-mammy/

Better Days

Its a war, Mammy said.
Nae wan knows whit goes oan behind closed doors.
Stay at hame. Protect the NHS. Save lives.
Weve fought oan aw fronts
And ahm tired 
Were aw tried 
O this world turnt upside doon.

Granda wouldve hud ten kittens
If hed lived tae see
Every pub in Glasgae shut. 
Puck the Rhona, bloody pint snatcher.
A disgruntled shake o the heid.
Even this didnae happen durin the Blitz!

Tae hell wi any law that keeps me fae ma church!
Granny wouldve said. 
Convinced prayers can move mountains. 
Gods gat his work cut oot fur him this year. 
Zoom? Thats an even dafter name than Facebox. 

Oor pals, family, are absent.
Hidin behind screens
And masks. 
Memories and ghosts fur company. 
We must dae oor bit fur the world.

Breathless blastin fae car windaes in March.
A rare laugh heidin back fae the hospital. 
Do they know its Christmas? through foggy November streets. 
Everythings changed, 
But were still here. 
Oor ain story fur the grandweans. 

Mammys always coonted 
The worlds blessings. 
Weve seen the back o that gabshite in the White Hoose.
Watched the internet proclaim,
Melania, yer finally free!

Nae first footers this year,
Wur no riskin o that unwelcome guest.
Jackie Bird can gie it laldy fae a distance 
And well huv a dram
A toast tae better days tae come.