Olive Ritch

Olive M. Ritch was born and brought up in Stromness, Orkney. She now lives in Aberdeen and her writing includes both prose and poetry.

Poems

The tide of love
went out
on the day
you were born
and you grew up
being tossed and torn
apart on the rip tide
of family life.

There was no ebb and flow
to drag your anchor
and no seasons
to give you warmth.

Every day you went to the shore
and, like Canute, could not
control the waves.

You waited
for a spring tide
but there was not one for you
and filled with a flood of hate
you left your childhood hopes
scattered among the wrack.