Maggie Mackay is a Scottish poet. Her work has been widely published online and in print magazines and journals including The Poetry Archive’s Wordview 2020 permanent collection and Impspired Press. Steve Cawte published her second collection ‘The Babel of Human Travel’ in 2022. She shares her life and sofa with the gorgeous Hattie the Greyt.

Reasons for Time Travelling to Byres Farm Cottages

To witness the birth of my father one hundred and four years ago
on that sunny November day
To meet my grandmother humming a baloo to her new son
To hear the milk cows low beyond the limewashed buildings
To walk the fields towards the White Cart, Crookston Castle within sight
To feel the oak barley breeze in my hair
To watch the Clydesdale’s hooves sink as the plough carves into the soil
To smell pure country air
To play with my toddler uncle on the stone floor
with his home-made wooden train
which I have to this day
To run it down the hallway and hear the wheels clatter as they have for three generations

Meeting Dad as a young man

I’m marching for my profession. I’m a probationer teacher. Holding my end of the banner up.
We’re chanting along Sauchiehall Street, shoppers on both sides, car horns hooting. It’s a
kind sky, no cloud trails or wisps. Further ahead, by a long plate glass store window, a man is
standing. He raises his pipe. His eyes follow me as I pass. So familiar. He’s a youthful man
with an open honest face. My skin shivers at the thought of my father returning to give me
succour. I turn, nearly stumble over the marcher behind me. There’s a momentary guddle.
When I spot him again, he’s raising his thumb. He likes what I’m doing. I recall the photo of
him, years ago before my birth. He’s grinning in the company of wafting union banners,
enjoying fighting the fight for a better, fairer world.