Poem of the week: The Dead Queen of Bohemia by Jenni Fagan

WHEN Granta recently placed Jenni Fagan on their Best of Young British Novelists list, the magazine was confirming what many already knew: she is one of the bright young stars of the Scottish literary scene.

Her debut novel The Panopticon has already won an army of fans, including Jackie Kay, Ali Smith and Irvine Welsh (who raved that it was “utterly magnificent achievement”). She is also a poet. Her second collection, The Dead Queen of Bohemia (Blackheath, £5), will not disappoint fans of her novel. “Watching From the Window at 6am On A Come Down” gives a flavour of its vivid, gritty, surreal take on life.

She is hoovering the road

at five am

no cars

to get in her way

no bumpers to have to lift

like errant slippered feet by the sofa,

she is naked

smoking

hoover in one hand

the plug trails along behind her

like an unwanted toddler

stupid and nappy wet

and hungry

and eager.

As the polis

pull up to the kerb

she is trying to polish the moon,

just trying to polish

it pretty

as they cuff her on the road.

• You can borrow The Dead Queen of Bohemia by Jenni Fagan from the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT. Tel: [phone], e-mail [email protected] or see www.spl.org.uk for details.