Biting Dust: Scots People Poems

Seagull an Stovies, King’s College Campus I didna buy this maet for ye I canna makk it clearer The seagull cocked its heid ajee An hodged a bitty nearer Neist it lat oot an eildritch skreich Near rugged ma lugs apairt Jist like a mappy fin a tod Sooks at its deein hairt I crummlit oatcakes ower the girse Tae stop its lamentation An straichtwye I wis nearly smored Bi hauf the seagull nation! Spa-Watter, Pannanich Ilkie simmer they sent ma up the knowe Tae sup the orra tastin iron watter Tongue-fyachie, nesty mineral medicine It syped frae happit springs in the knowe’s breist Jibblin doon, a fyachie roosty reid ower skelps o rock Like a tod’s bluid, thon scunnersome elixir Slugs oozed easy mangst the blueberries An mochs an butteries wachtit saft as oo Pirls o rubbit’s drappins rowed aneth the bracken Like unstrung beads o jet skaled ower the moss The sun full on ma chikks pit roses there The brummils scoored ma knees wi scrats an scurls An aa the while inbye an auncient inn Grown ups sat suppin tay frae cheena cups Excheengin kin-claik, swappin bits o news While puddocks hunkerin in the sappy sheughs Craikit an lowpt, wee green pyokes o farts Heid o the Hoose He trimmed his blue-blaik neb hair’s cannily His curls had shrunken tae a baldie-pate Thon heich, braid, fernie-tickelt Heilander Fa wauked the warld wi a firm-stridin gait This chiel, born in a nicht o Wintry storm Wis kent tae cairry ither body’s waes He raised his sister’s bairns as weel’s his ain An vrocht tae keep them fed an happt in claes Auld age struck late, near echty fin it cam Like lichtnin, time’s knell felled a michty aik TV sooked him intae its flichterin warld He’d nod an lauch, turned tae a dweeble state Fit gin this winter’s bairn’d bin born in June His fowk hid bin twa spylt movie stars? Fit if a siller speen had fed his moo? He micht hae grown a drooth in skid-row bars Bit like a thrissle, hardy on a brae That raxxes up its heid abeen wi health An care for ithers neth the warld’s blae lift. His family, weel an thrivin, he caad wealth The Hoosewife’s gear Bluid-reid lipstick, Max Factor Ile o Ulay, anti-agein Pooder puff an peint for nails Perm rollers for curls arreengin Costume jewellery, like a magpie Cultured pearls, a musquash fur Rings for merriege an engagement Spyles o time……teeth in a jar Heilan Clachan Neeps, tatties an kail in a veggie shop Gean petals skittered snaw-like on the cassies Rose stippled troot upon a dennerplate Dauncers birl on the boords A flounce o tartan, skeely, for the tourists The inns are thrang wi Japanee an Yankees Clouds like lovers link hauns ower the sun Rikk frae a lum is sweet, dry aipplewid Thunnerstorms like carousels Furl roon the heathery crags Sodjers frae the barracks Stravaig the girse, checkin oot local lassies Nae need for bombs nor rifles, A cushie billet On the Coyles o Muick An aidder, fas tongue’s tint the Gaelic Slidders throw hoch heich bracken Burns rin forrit, niver back, for Centuries Whiles swallt, an whiles a treetle An we are the waves o the clachan Jibblin up, a meenit’s stramash an daizzle Syne ane wi the ram stam watter mirlin roon Jeems at Echty Jeems tuik a richt gweed willie-waucht o Time His hauns, twa wrinkled neives, booed roon twa fauld Fooshionless, he hytered back an fore Wyed doon bi sairs, the skaith o turnin auld His youth, gaed tapsalteerie aff like leaves Doon-drappt an crined, theiur sap aa syped awa Aroon his een, kiln-crackit wrunkles spreid His neb, a dreepin tap, he didna blaw A humphy-backit contermachious cyard Grown dottlet, foonert, trauchelt ower the years In youth, a gyangin fit, a ready lauch Nae braeheid seems ower heich fin Life first briers