Orkney Movement

The sun sets

a fat candle

to flicker on the damask sea.

The ebb slips

an oyster

down the Atlantic throat.

The spume off Braga

is unbottled

bubbly.

Dale's silage towers

are green

as flowers:

their cows

make fudge

and whisky.

And no sooth news

can break

the silent

editorial

of swell and gull,

as Vikings close the door

and settle to a feast

they roar low after

like Buccaneers.

In OAR 5 (Orkney Arts Review), 1994, ed. Alistair Peebles

Collected in These Islands We Sing:

An Anthology of Scottish Islands Poetry,

ed. Kevin MacNeil (Polygon, 2011)