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Sarah Stewart

Originally hailing from Stonehaven, Sarah Stewart is an author, editor and director of The Lighthouse Literary Consultancy. Previously, she spent ten years as a journalist and magazine editor, writing for a wide range of publications, from The Guardian to Mizz magazine. Her poetry has appeared in Anon, Mslexia, New Writing Dundee, The Pickled Body and The Scotsman, and her first novel will be published by Stripes in 2015.

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This is a true story

I would not marry into that house.
I couldn’t condemn
my unconceived children

to their strange bloodline:
oddly shaped ears, a mad uncle,
small boys packed off to Eton,

and an imperious matriarch
reigning over the tea-table.
God, the mother loved to bake.

I was suspicious of her flirtation
with domesticity, seeing as 
they had staff, but she was a pro

with the first incision,
opening up Victoria sponge
like a neurosurgeon,

and she’d wave that knife in the air,
if she disliked the conversation.
I marvelled at their gift

for turning near-miss into legend:
He almost rowed for Oxford, you know!
Giles practically climbed Everest in ‘92!

 Years later, I found a photo of us,
frozen for the camera,
at a table covered with sugar.

I’d told the story to so many –
this crazy rich family! –
that I could barely recall

how much of it was theirs,
and how much mine. I confess,
matriarch held no scalpel

in the shot; the light was kind,
the cakes appeared delicious,
and all their ears looked fine.


‘This Is a True Story’ © Sarah Stewart.

Sarah Stewart reads her poem 'This is a True Story'.

Sarah Stewart reads her poem 'Records'.

Sarah Stewart reads her poem 'MRI'.
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