i.m Isobel Gunn aka John Fubbister 1781 -1861
We’ll never know what made her brave enough
to dare to bind her breasts, cut her hair,
wear men’s clothes, sign up
with the Hudson Bay Company
and set off for the icy north.
Some say it was the money, the wages
far more than any Orkney occupation
a poor, single woman could do.
Others said she was plain, pock-marked,
unlikely to find a husband; that’s why.
But she was strong, fit, as good as any man,
proved her worth in that frozen northern land
across the sea.
It took a violent man, a rape, a pregnancy,
a birth, for her secret to come out.
.
Tonnie Richmond
.