Three poems about Beinn Bhàn
Published in
Jul 30, 2024
1.
A cloud sits on Beinn Bhàn’s summit
like a periwig.
2.
From his granite eminence
robed in ferns and velvet heather
Beinn does not even look down upon us.
His head is filled with stone, like many judges,
and the supporting court officers nerv-
ily flutter through the wind at his base.
He is not interested in the defendants.
His gaze is along Glen Loy, to the paved
gleam of the loch, and beyond to sea
and western sky. He is too distracted
by the beauty of the view to judge us.
3.
The sentence comes at last: words drizzling down,
cool, each word a water droplet, each glint
a lens to focus sunlight through the judgment
and sparkle a spectrum, prison bars ranged
in colours, red to gold, corn green to cyan
All rise, says the landscape now. All rise.
