The Piper At Glencoe

Glencoe in sunlight Is glorious Green treeless hills and Rocky crags A piper stands in his MacDonald Kilt Plays a lament that reverberates Through the glen Tourists with their cameras Click and smile A tour bus spewing fumes The story getting lost In the 21st century The piper knows Though the sun shines bright Many a lost soul lingers In these forgotten passes If you listen closely You can hear the screams Of women and children And frail, old men One terrible night Death and destruction Kind and giving hosts betrayed A government turned On its people It was not a Campbell-MacDonald dispute Though many would have you Believe it so It was about a king demanding obedience There is many a lesson to be learned But so few seem willing to consider In a world that turns its back on History. How could anyone with a heart Commit such vile atrocities And live with himself in the Morning? When does a soldier, duty-bound Disobey an immoral order At risk of his own personal Advancement? When does a people hold its Government accountable? When does love and honor and Respect of all human beings Supersede the petty, mean and Violent ambitions of Greedy, ego-driven fools? Glencoe holds the answers perhaps Trapped in the glen, trying to escape The piper listens to the cries And plays If you look closely You can see it in his face The piper knows. ~ Laurence Overmire (Previously published in The Ghost of Rabbie Burns: An American Poet's Journey Through Scotland, Indelible Mark Publishing,2016)