#2029 - between times

 

2029

6.202

20.vii.25

between times

for the dream diary

 

see through a wall

everyone does

 

and what’s on the way?

how many know though?

 

every state is partial undress

 

situation rewind, secret random

 

even a meal is after, before

 

 a flight of thought, so stray

 

into what colours?

texture of craving

 

between the hands – this tock and tock

 

huddle me, won’t you

unticket my other

 

headful of elsewhere

and where are you?

 

tell it all up

after happily ever

 

no place at all

back, forth, up, atom

 

a snap frozen sun

such as sleep

for a dare

 

seep through a mall

for the shopping experience

 

one word is all the words once

it’s only ever by way of a fear

 

come!

always and never are bound to meet

 

see through a fall

land all fours

 

then know ye must

all are fulfilled

 

wreak your own havoc here

#2028 - guess which way's up

 

2028

6.201

19.vii.25

guess which way’s up

ekphrastic for David Body’s ‘Rookery’ at the Castle Gallery, Inverness

 

we think of the sky as something straight

ruins of a storm

fresh paint

 

the ploughlines and all this work –

a road you won’t read

but how else are we here?

 

this is a view from the curve of the world

here’s a flourish of field

a copse dark

 

the window chimney sideways sinks

and colour?

who’ll call it?

 

it’s some of each

as if the rain stays put

call it a farm

 

birds firm the air

each on its way

together, as in parting 

#2027 - Niseag in loch-down

 

2027

6.201

19.vii.25

Niseag in loch-down

a conference with the Aberdonian gull

who delivers a single chip and much wisdom

 

ciamar a tha sibh?

 

how are you my fine feathered worm?

 

I bring tidings from the whale of Ashvale

from Haggis Samosa at the Bombay Thistle

from Sushiness at Loch’s End

 

you wouldn’t believe or maybe you would

 

there’s a new Scottish startup called

Jacobytes – a snack and software company

 

sorry, that’s probably a bit obscure

 

I know things have been quiet for a while

but everyone still says you’re a monster

 

some fucker with the latest equipment

is going to electrocute the loch

see what bobs up

it’s just a matter of time

 

they’re warming up the whole world anyway

it’s possible the seas will boil

 

the churches are full of ghosts now

do you remember those places

where they fervour up a witch burn

 

there’s industrial genocide just a sea away

 

today’s Trump and Epstein Day

 

…they… they… well it’s hard to explain

 

in a way it’s just what they’ve always done

but it’s worse

 

people, you know?

in charge of the planet

 

honestly, you don’t want to know

 

…

and she raises her just above the brim

before she dives back down  

#2026 - picnicking ruins

 

2026

6.200

18.vii.25

picnicking ruins

 

briar up, heather

raspberry ripe

 

a frolic

lambswhite

hills granity green

 

then listen!

 

imagine a summer storm

 

not yet

 

it’s now

thistle and bee are solemnly one

 

look  through the grass

through the tree

to the stream

 

here’s forest down mountain

patched from the sky

 

the track now leading me off

who knows where?

has to have brought me this far

 

a story is letting me tell 

four pictures at Newtonmore - various details

 

#2025 - òran luaidh

 

2025

6.199

17.vii.25

òran luaidh

(waulking song)

the women call and come after

 

Hoirean ò hi ri ìthill iù

Ho ro hiu ro éileadh

Hoirean ò hi ri ìthill iù

            – traditional

 

 

mind for skelfs on the table

 

it’s most of the sun shone

and down through time

 

dawn dusk out of the otherwise day

they are translating the cloth

 

by wash, sing tweed the table round

 

with gossip, so much reputation

out of the mattering, this does

 

a kind of pride to sing –

the spinning, the weaving, the dyeing too

 

all the before of these inches to tighten

 

the rent from this, the pennies for need

 

they are passing along

 

hearts pour out

to sing the men whaling, the men at war

 

spring blooms, hills in lamblight

 

here’s the silly goat, croft climber

 

stale piss to add now

and pick up the pace

 

top of finger to the first knuckle

that’s how we measure the tightening too

 

a peatsmoke choke

sky high as blue

 

climb up to the sheiling

where secretly a heart is pledged

 

rough hands

love told too late

daft boy

 

the lamb in the grass

in the singing all round

 

and that’s your winter warm

#2024 - Jamie Macpherson

 

2024

6.198

16.vii.25

Jamie Macpherson

hanged for an Egyptian and traveler, 1700

 

Fareweel, ye dungeons dark and strang, fareweel, fareweel tae ye

                                         – traditional

 

bagged like a cat with a blanket thrown

so unsworded from

 

robbin’ the lairds and loving the crofters

bastard outlaw from birth

 

his enemy the sleekit Laird Braco

toff with a grudge

who set the town clock on

when the messenger with the pardon come

 

at merkat cross

here’s more alive than any there

condemned for the crime of having been born

 

a tune

a rant at the foot of the gallows

 

and how many times?

how many will deny me now

come to see, to hear

 

condemned to hang for the crime of just being

 

and no one for my fiddle? no one?

I’ll smash it to splinters then