A SCENE to ponder from Meg Bateman's admirable new collection, Transparencies (Polygon, £9.99).
Born in Edinburgh in 1959, Bateman has since 1998 taught literary and philosophical studies through the Gaelic medium at Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye, and has made her name as a Gaelic poet. This is her first largely English compilation.
GIRL AND GRANDMOTHER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY
Girl helping your grandmother up the gallery steps
with her stick in one hand and her arm in yours,
to you she seems as old as the hills,
you little imagine your own hand wrinkled
or your back bent,
but you are contemporaries -
you walk this earth together.
She leads you to a painting over in the corner.
"Self-portrait of the Artist at Twenty-three"
by David Martin (18th Century, Scottish),
shows you the trace of foxglove in his cheek,
the shadowy eyes and long fair lashes,
and no better claim have you than she
on the chiselled lips caught between glazes.
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