Mae Diansangu has been wowing poetry audiences with her spoken word performances in Aberdeen, so it’s brilliant to see a debut collection in print from the fantastic poetry publisher, Tapsalteerie. Here is a selection of her poems, which we hope make you rush to read the rest!

Bloodsongs
By Mae Diansangu
Published by Tapsalteerie

First came the universe… 

In the beginning, there was everything. 

At the world’s birthday party, the sky 

lit the candles on a red velvet cake, 

so the darkness could make a wish. 

Pandora was there handing out gifts. 

Among her party favours: 

flightless birds, metaphors, aesthetic 

appreciation, forgetfulness, earworms, 

cellulite, empathetic pain, orgasms, 

the perfect comeback concocted hours 

after the argument, post-meal fatigue, 

proxy wars, nostalgia, gender 

euphoria, novelty, doubt, cancer, the wordless 

agreement two people enter while pretending 

not to have spotted each other on a busy street, 

sugar, faith, the desire to fix things, compromise, 

poetry, calcium, secondhand embarrassment, 

community, disappointment, pins and needles, 

schadenfreude, object permanence, language, 

revolution, apples, snakes, ladders, 

hope. 

Jean Craig, 1784 

i wiz brocht up tae fear god. 

this wiz afore the word ‘love’ 

wiz pronoonced like it is 

the day – fan we used infinite 

fower letter configurations 

tae squish sufferin intae. 

a righteous path wiz rolled 

oot afore me, but i traipsed 

efter ambition an pride. the deil 

curled up inside ma lug. the wye 

she spake aboot love wiz queer. 

as if it were summin ye were owed, 

that ye could just gie tae yersel. 

she telt me, i could mak my ain 

happiness – thon weel-dressed 

wifeys werena ony better than me. 

so i stole a piece o linen tae prove 

i could be sumbdy. but ma sweet, 

lovin god wis ragin. unworthy 

an clarty wi sin, fit else could i dee 

but die fur him. this city hiz teeth. 

the fowk need tae eat. i feed them 

ma bleed, pray it learns their bairns 

tae keep fae makkin ill. ma body 

will mind them nae tae listen 

fan the deil creeps in. 

that tae love yersel above 

aahin else is a great muckle sin. 

‘Jean Craig, 1784’ was part of the exhibition, Symphony in Grey, commissioned by 

Aberdeen Performing Arts in 2023. 

Colourblandness 

I can’t taste the sunrise 

anymore. Yellow turns to grey 

in my mouth. The memory of you 

bleaches my tongue. 

Terracotta has no spice, 

lilac is unsalted rice. 

I have lost my sense of colour. 

I remember the morning 

we invented turquoise. 

Joni was singing about a 

blue boy while you spoonfed me secrets. 

Between scarlet mouthfuls, I let you into 

my past. You said this was the last time. 

Fake gold had greened my fingers. 

You kissed them, then slipped inside 

me, up to where your ring should be. 

I lick the pigment from this 

memory, hoping to jog my 

tastebuds. But, 

nothing comes. 

on gratitude 

when i see the granite streets 

that skinned the brown knees 

of my childhood, exploding 

with posters and slogans – 

something behind my ribcage 

starts to unstick. for years my 

chest has been thick with 

every ‘where are you really from?’ 

that has clung to my heart 

and stung every part of me. 

friendly smiles that shine 

with the kindest of knives 

make the deepest cuts. 

the city that birthed me has 

also cursed me under its breath, 

but when george stopped breathing, 

these streets breathed for him. 

i breathed a sigh of relief. 

unaware, i was even holding it in. 

this gratitude is blood-tinged, 

obscured by the shadows 

of guilt and grief. 

sometimes, i feel like a thief 

pick pocketing the death of a stranger. 

but research suggests, being grateful 

improves mental health. 

when a Black man is choked to death 

by racism, i don’t want to be grateful for 

anything. i don’t want to be grateful, 

i want to be equal. 

The poems in the ‘Black Notes’ section of Bloodsongs, which includes ‘on gratitude’ were commissioned by the National Library of Scotland (under the title ‘black lives, heavy truths’) as part of their Fresh Ink initiative in 2021.

Bloodsongs by Mae Dainsangu is published by Tapsalteerie, priced £10.00.