In Lochranza Bay the tide is out and Seals shape rocks

Swallowed by sun-probed hills briskly moving clouds are grey

Coiled adders hear and swiftly disappear inside dense fern

From a slow start a guillemot moves toward graceful flight

Long-eared bats radar trace ellipses

Oystercatchers swirl shrills towards the dusk of Catacol Bay

Yellow eyes of a goshawk stare as sweeping flight glides to earth

‘Many mountains and a myriad ravines converge . . .’1

Dawn assumes a guardian role

Later 4 bombs explode

Others will not

1 Songs of Old and Cherished Memory No 3 Tu Fu (T’ang Dynasty)

previously published in insideoutside (2008)