2nd place winner published poets section of the 2021 Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Robert Burns Poetry Competition
Catchin a fairy (tae Rakiura)
There’s a lassie she ken how tae catch a fairy
She ken juist when an whaur ye need tae wait
She’ll clype fur a dance an a kingfisher’s chance
O a send frae her lover thort th strait
She’ll tak ye doon the watter’s edge a daylicht
Tae seek the fairy pall’d up at the quay
She’s heerd of fairies caucht in nets at gloaming - tide
Creels o fankled wings hailed up oot o th sea
It’ll coast ye a ye awn an next to naethin
Skarrackin a fairy cross th spray
Ye mind tha a th hiney in the haill. wide. warld
is a braw an aefauld ticket price tae pay
It’s anely whan th foothills turn tae mountains
th gray horizon lumpier than clay
Religion comes tae aa o thase wi seasickness
Deik-doon an hingen-heedit as ye pray
tha lovers wha send letters tae their fairies
dinnae keep em trap’d in creelies foo o’ brine
Aiblins a kiss, or a box of piss
tae pay th’ mollymawk wha hunts th’ tide line.