My Life as a Mafia Widow

It's something about the Italian shape of your nose
something that lurks in the shadows in oddly compelling Mafia films
the unexpected gia visto of Sciasca's sentences
that I absorb untaught in the original

old nightmares of being chased down cobbled streets to my death
start to make some kind of sense

and my face on my passport photo
looks like some Sicilian widow
as I was when Cosa Nostra stole you away
in our last life

and still in this one
you never speak to me
while your girl
practices mourning,

Mafia style

gia visto - deja vu

Cosa Nostra - Mafia

Re-imagining my life for Read Write Poem

Skin Deep - poetry about tattoos

Skin Deep, the anthology of poetry about tattoos, edited by Claire Askew, is now available to pre-order here. It will be available in tattoo shops and other outlets in Edinburgh from the beginning of March. £4 only!

Yes, I do feature in it.....

picking at the scabs
of unwanted memory -
insistent questions