Poetry by Ian Banks is featured on his personal Wattpad account. It contains his very modest poem collection, published for his own pleasure, and only being uploaded now to bring his extremely scruffy scribblings (written slowly and sporadically over 30-years) up to a 21st century digital standard for posterity. The short poem below of ‘‘O Sole Mio!‘ is taken from his collection linked to a passion for fishing, Gyotaku (Japanese fish printing using squid ink) and fish cookery (& eating!).

‘O Sole Mio!

Species: Lemon Sole (Microstomus kitt)

Recipe: Sole in Lemon Butter (Sole Meuniere)

No Dover backing and losing its identity,
You are my lemon sunshine,
My Plaice in the sun,
A ray-finned demersal,
Name of Microstomus kitt:
Sad cat of a right-eye flounder, but,
Like most other true souls,
You cannot help but lie like a flatfish,
Winking and lightly dusted,
The duplicitous Millers Wife,
Wallowing in a sandy shale of capered brown butter,
The bigger fish to fry.