“Bed-Fellow” by Jay Whittaker

With the whole bed to choose from
the dog clambers in, so close
I almost fall off the edge.

I move to what used to be my side,
that familiar view across pillows
from which I turned away,

just as I had to sit in her armchair,
occupy her space,
to not see the gap she left.

—

Jay Whittaker has lived and worked in Edinburgh since 1995. Her pamphlet Pearl was published in 2005 by the Selkirk Lapwing Press. Recently her poems have been shortlisted for a Scottish New Writers 2016 Award and the 2016 Bridport Poetry Prize, and published by the Scottish Poetry Library,  Envoi, Orbis, the Frogmore Papers, Brittle Star and The Interpreter’s House. Her first full-length collection, Wristwatch, will be published by Cinnamon Press in autumn 2017. www.jaywhittaker.uk