Jackie Kay quotes

• "Buds remained closed as secrets"


  Keeping orchids
• "like a baby in a shawl"


  Keeping orchids
• "compressed.airtight."


  Keeping orchids
• "cutting the stems with a sharp knife"


  Keeping orchids
• "foot against my heart"


  Gap year
• "pulled out with forceps"


  Gap year
• "a swarm of eyes"


  Lucozade
• "big brandy, generous gin, the bloody Mary, the biscuit tin, the chocolate gingers, the dirty big meringue"


  Lucozade
• "ward 10B, stobhill hospital"


  Lucozade
• "sad chrysanthemums"


  Lucozade
• "high hospital bed"


  Lucozade
• Groggy and low


  Lucozade
• Light and radiant


  Lucozade
• Her train station to mine 


  Keeping orchids
• Words fell off my tongue


  Old tongue
• My own vowels started to stretch like my bones 


  Old tongue
• Words disappeared 


  Old tongue
• Dead of night


  Whilst Leila sleeps
• My headlights are paranoiac eyes


  Whilst Leila sleeps
• My voice is a house with the roof blown off


  Whilst Leila sleeps
• My mother moans


  My grandmothers houses
• The new house is called a high rise


  My grandmothers houses
• Rooms lead off like an octopus's arms


  My grandmothers houses
• From her living room you see ambulances


  My grandmothers houses
• Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia 


  Gap year
• My heart soars like birds


  Gap year