Dumbarton, May 2020

By Ann Mackinnon

Much during the era of Covid- 19 has been uncertain, but it’s possible to say one thing without fear of contradiction: when it’s all over, poetry anthologists will be kept busy for years compiling pandemic collections. They could do worse than beginning with Ann Mackinnon’s succinct “Dumbarton, May 2020,” which appears this month in City, Town & Village ( Figment Books, £ 10), part of the Scottish Writers’ Centre Chapbook series. It’s a limited edition collection of the best in Scottish short- form writing, featuring both poetry and prose, which responds to the theme in the book’s title.

The high street is hushed, boarded up and hollow but go through the cobbled close and another vista opens up –

a river clean, clear and blue, the only traffic, a swan, solitary and dignified, sailing beneath the bridge.

You can reserve a copy of City, Town & Village edited by Laura Fyfe at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT, which has now reopened and is operating a ‘ Click and Collect’ service. For poetry enquiries, e- mail reception@ spl. org. uk or visit www. scottishpoetrylibrary. org. uk.