The SR holiday edition

Footdee
Photograph by Islay McLeod

The July Poem

Ironing a sari

Gerard Rochford

This hand dyed cotton unfolding on and on
until its face and colour are young again.
 
Such length is like a path down to the river,
which morning and evening feels the feet of women
who wander from the village to the washing place
and laugh about their men beside the drying  stones.
 
The cloth has no one now to fold around:
one brown shoulder covered, the other bare,
breasts shaping a tease of bodice,
the crucial tucking in around the waist.
 
And I am wrapped within this task,
breathing warmth from what has touched your skin.
 
 
© Gerard Rochford
 
Gerard's publications include 'Eating Eggs with Strangers', 'The Holy Family and Other Poems', and 'Figures of Stone' (Koo Press). His poem 'My Father's Hand' was in Janice Galloway's selection of 'Best 20 Scottish Poems of 2006' on behalf of the Scottish Poetry Library. His next publication will be ‘Failing Light’ – Embers Handpress, 2010. He is the Scottish Review's Makar of 2010 and will contribute a poem each month.

SR returns on Tuesday 3 August