SCOTS Project - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk Document : 1489 Title : Like a Visitor Author(s): Sheila Templeton Copyright holder(s): Sheila Templeton Text Your room's tidy. You've left it downie smoothed, pillow sitting up like a plump visitor. I'm glad of this damp towel crumpling a corner. 'Okay to have a bath,' you said. Okay was you sprawling careless limbs, sloth draped over the settee. A cornflake mountain drowned in milk. Locust stripped fridge, Dead Head Comics, flicking T.V. channels, driving me daft. Not hearing until I squatted down into your eyeballs. 'What's that you're sayin' Mum ?' I'm saying That time you slammed a fist into thin wall, and you... wet newspaper, chalky plaster mixed in a jam jar, tongue sticking out in concentration, covering the hole, 'Calm down Mother. It's FINE!' Has left a space, an empty place. My hand finds it, every time I climb these stairs. A bumpy, gritty patch, unpainted and never sanded smooth. This work is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The SCOTS Project and the University of Glasgow do not necessarily endorse, support or recommend the views expressed in this document. Information about document and author: Text Text audience General public: Audience size: 1000+ Text details Method of composition: Wordprocessed Year of composition: 2006 Word count: 143 Text medium Book: Newspaper: Periodical/journal: Radio: Text publication details Published: Part of larger text: Contained in: Slow Road Home (Sheila Templeton) / Running Threads (Jim Hughes, Rowena M Love, Michael Malone, Sheila Templeton) Text setting Leisure/entertainment: Private/personal: Text type Poem/song/ballad: Author Author details Author id: 1075 Forenames: Sheila Surname: Templeton Gender: Female Decade of birth: 1940 Educational attainment: University Age left school: 18 Upbringing/religious beliefs: upbringing Protestantism, now Eastern Yoga meditation practice Occupation: Retired Teacher Place of birth: Aberdeen Region of birth: Aberdeen Birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Country of birth: Scotland Place of residence: Troon Region of residence: S Ayr Residence CSD dialect area: Ayr Country of residence: Scotland Father's occupation: Railway Engineer / originally farm worker Father's place of birth: Stoneywood Father's region of birth: Aberdeen Father's birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Father's country of birth: Scotland Mother's occupation: Doctors' Receptionist Mother's place of birth: Dyce Mother's region of birth: Aberdeen Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Mother's country of birth: Scotland Languages: Language: English Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: At work, at home, writing Language: Scots Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: At home, writing work mainly poetry