Runner Up for the 2022 Sloan Prize
Heather Dunnett is a queer Aberdonian poet currently working towards her MSc in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Edinburgh University. She has lived in Edinburgh for the past five years and writing poetry in the dialect of her hometown is one way she stays connected to the people and place she loves.
Connect with Heather
Twitter: @hidunnett
Instagram: @hidunnett
let mi spik
och michity mi, noo let mi spik
in ma mither tongue:
roll ma rs, a drop o the vowels –
even fen they say ae spik falsely,
tha’ this isnae ma mither tongue,
nit hoo ae actually spik,
ae dinnae bid em nae min,
just tell em in mi granite tongue, to go awa
an bile their heids.
fur the North sea flows in ma veins,
rivers Dee an Don ma beating lungs,
ma hame roars its name in ma chest –
fa are you tae deny ma tongue
the chance tae reconnect tae ma hame?
fur awa fae the toon tha’ built ma soul,
fur ae af granite bones
mither’s dother, quine of the Silver City Blues,
fen ae spik wi tha’ ‘donian tongue please ken
that this is hoo ae find hame in a hameless home
