By Tabatha Stirling
Photography Jonathan Bowers, via Unsplash
It’s a long way home
To the cats, the barns, the belfry’s
Rape-seed gorges and ever-distant voices
To the dusty halls and houses
And you.
It’s a long way home
To the view of saffron from our tiny hill
A message in damson, the Fishers regal bill
And to the total, utter thrill
that’s you.
Bales and dragonflies plus twice-kissed wine
Seeds, pollen and nothing that was ever mine
Picture-books bulging in pockets
For nostalgia raids
And my particular addiction withering with
each day for you.
It’s a long way home
To a creamy moon & shell-pink yarrow
Names that entangle tongues, the roar of salt & shadow
To the love, the hate, the marrow
Of you.
Tabatha Stirling
Tabatha Stirling is a writer, poet and indie publisher living in Edinburgh, Scotland with her husband, two children and a depressed Beagle, called The Beagle. Her publishing credits include Spelk fiction, Literary Orphans, Mslexia, Feminine Collective and she recently won the Scottish Book Trust 50-word short story competition and was awarded 2nd place in the NopeBook Halloween contest.
An extract of her addiction memoir is to be published in the ‘Wild & Precious Life’ Anthology edited by Lily Dunn. Tabatha is a member of both The Society of Authors and The Scottish Federation of Writers.
Her debut novel, Blood On The Banana Leaf, is to be published by Unbound in 2019.
Tabby is absolutely ready for a zombie apocalypse.
