It seems appropriate to post this poem by Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochhead just a couple days after Burns Night, the annual celebration of all things Scotch that takes place on Robert Burns's birthday, January 25. Lochhead's "Black and White Allsorts" is dedicated to fellow writer Jackie Kay, who Lochhead has said encouraged her to keep in touch with the child-like side of herself, and indeed the poem delights as a modern-day nursery rhyme. It's also very fun to try to read it out loud:
a liquorice bootlace
a cultured pearl necklace
a little black dress
Lux flakes, snowflakes
sno-pake, tippex
a black bra
a zebra, an op-art umbrella,
ebony, ivory, black Sobranie, a skunk
a black eye, a white feather, a pool of printers ink
a brand new broderie anglais bikini
pasta negro (squid ink linguini)
one single earring of jingling jet
and like a big black sugar-cube, a perfect briquette
black suede boots just out of the box
and, to go with your good black patent shoes, pet
new white socks
coconut, caviar, a wee pet lamb
a jar of home-made blackcurrant jam
spilt salt, wet tar, black ointment, The Broons
a box of Black Magic and an old black-and-white
on a Sunday afternoon
a white dove
a long black glove
a scoosh of mousse, the full moon
a soot crust, a snowball, a Lee's macaroon
a meringue, mascara, a dollop of Nivea
talc on black lino
the (shuttered) dark
a dropped domino
a white angora bolero
two daft dalmations in the snow
in Kelvingro-
ve park
from The Colour of Black and White, 2003 (UK)