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#18 A Moment

‘A pair, connected. Then the train rumbled out of the station.’

A Moment, by Eilidh Clark, is one of over thirty poems featured this year in Passing Time, an exhibition of poetry on railway station platforms across Renfrewshire as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

I remember her sitting there,

Long amber hair, and a chair with wheels

The colour of the sea.

I remember sitting there,

Daring her to care, wishing her eyes

Would fall from the sky into mine.

But we just sat there,

I paid my fare, while she looked for mermaid

Shapes in the clouds.

But as I sat there,

and listened to the whistle tear a note

Into the station

She looked, she smiled, and we shared,

A moment.

And I sat there, and she sat there,

A pair, connected.

Then the train rumbled out of the station

To somewhere.

70 Stories is an online project curated by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival to mark the 70th anniversary of the Mental Health Foundation. The project connects stories from our Writing Competition, stories from SMHAF participants, and more in a compelling portrait of mental health in 2019.

Keep an eye on mhfestival.com/70stories for new entries in the series. If you are connected in some way to SMHAF or the Mental Health Foundation and would like to contribute a piece of writing to this project, please contact aeaton-lewis@mentalhealth.org.uk.