Lament for Sheku Bayoh

By Hannah Lavery

'No problem here pal. None at all.ʼ

In the early hours of the morning, thirty-one-year-old Sheku Bayoh set out to walk home from his friend’s place after watching a boxing match. Just hours later, he had lost his life in police custody. Lament for Sheku Bayoh is a poetic expression of grief for the human behind the headlines and a non-apologetic reflection on racism in Scotland today.

'Timely and necessary' The Stage, 5 Stars

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Salamander Street Ltd.
• Release date: Aug 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781914228216

Hannah Lavery

Hannah Lavery is an award-winning poet and playwright. Her pamphlet, Finding Seaglass was published by Stewed Rhubarb and her poem, Scotland You’re No Mine was selected as one Scotland’s Best Poems for 2019. The Drift, her highly acclaimed autobiographical lyric play toured Scotland as part of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Season 2019 and in 2020, she was selected by Owen Sheers’ as one of his Ten Writers Asking Questions That Will Shape Our Future for the International Literature Showcase, a project from the National Writing Centre and the British Council. Her second lyric play Lament for Sheku Bayoh premiered at Edinburgh International Festival in 2021. She was also appointed Edinburgh Makar in November 2021 for a three year term. She is an associate artist with the National Theatre of Scotland and one of the winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Award 2022. Her debut poetry collection, Blood Salt Spring was published in March 2022 (Polygon).

Book preview

The Lament (Part One)

SECOND: We walk our preserved battlefields. Laying stone on towering cairns. Kilted and tearful in school assemblies we sing of our beautiful defeats, our fallen. Ignoring anything anyone

who may dispute the telling.

Do we have to be on the right side

of every story we tell of ourselves –

is that belonging?

What would it cost us

to lift him broken from a Kirkcaldy street

to cradle him as our own?

Can we still say

we love this place

if we don’t.

Can we still sell

this vision of ourselves

to ourselves?

Who are we

if we turn toward this?

Who are we

if we don’t?

Can we have

no more of this

love wi out question?

Can we no

now

stop

looking over that border

into all that green saying

Here.

Aye

Here.

We are so

so much better.

No problem here pal.

None.

None at all.

Is it no time

after all?

Ach!

Did you know? Colour blind

they say

is a peculiar

Scottish phrase.

Pure of intention.

Pure as the driven

it’s blinding.

Well until

it’s not

until

you’re not.

CONVERSATION