Celebrating Scotland is at the centre of 2022’s Year of Stories and Henry Bell’s The Inner Circle is packed with poetry as love letter to the city of Glasgow, its sights, smells, colours and characters. Here, we share three poems from the collection that have us ready to speed across the M8!

Poems taken from The Inner Circle
By Henry Bell
Published by Stewed Rhubarb

O Watermelons!

O honey mango shop!
O slick of sun tan lotion!
ripe back lane bins
and the laburnum’s yellow ropes
of poison thrill then fade
so breathe in deep
the back court smoke
a jungle of weed
and bar-b-ques
O buzzing copter!
O row of hot glass bottles!
radios roar from shimmering cars
twins hold
their shrieking guinea pigs
as the Bengal cat
prowls through knee high
yellow thistles
a paddling pool is filled
a phone rings
and a siren ripples
out along the street
O pizza boxes!
O boy racers!

Rat Caught in a Manhole Cover

Rat caught in a manhole cover
you have rolled a natural one.
Too fat but not quite greasy enough
you are suspended between the sewer
and the stars: easy prey for dogs, cats
or motorbikes. Dear rat
I do not offer you pity but fellow-feeling,
how rat-like, how human, to dream
of an open road, but find yourself
chained to your dankness.
I bet the other rats make fun of you.
Here, have this poem, it is about your courage,
your hope, your triumph, the way we see you,
full gut stuck in a manhole, straining
and all round the world say ‘aah
that brave rat is me.’

Comrade Teacake

I am watching
a Tunnock’s tea cake
fall to earth
in real time
from a height
of 37,262 metres.
It spins and glints. Little
Glasgow Sputnik,
pudding of whimsy,
facing the vastness,
the coldness,
the darkness.
There is nothing better
to do right now
than watch a tea cake
hurtle through space,
115 Eiffel towers above us,
556 Wallace monuments above us,
here in the future.
O little teacake,
from Glasgow to Saturn,
so alone up there.
But imagine
what we will achieve
when you have come back
to earth
sweet cosmonaut.
Your red foil and stars
bring tears
to a kulak’s eye.
No empire biscuit this, no.
A teacake
of internationalism,
circling the earth,
spreading
its mallowy joy.

The Inner Circle by Henry Bell is published by Stewed Rhubarb, priced £5.99