Veins and arteries under the skin
Of ancient habitation bubble hot
With human energy. Filled with the din
Of voices, as the tide flows forth then clots
On the platform, waiting for that cool gust
Of air. Pushing, manners all but forgot,
The lifeblood of the old city thrust
Their bodies forward as two yellow eyes
Loom from the dark. Accelerated dust,
Kicked up by an unnatural wind, flies.

The multicultural wave squeezes through
Sliding doors, crammed tight against cool curves
Of metal. The heat paints each face the hue
Of molten rock which burns the fraying nerves
Like dry wood. The City elements steam
In a tin can that rattles, bumps and swerves
Through pathways of concrete and tile. The scream
Of wheels on tracks strikes deep, lancing ears
and drowning senses. The aching stream
Of light is relief; the platform appears.

A living cramp, they push for space and wait
For the click of lock, manufactured tongue.
Oozing fractiousness, particles vibrate.
The door opens. Expelled from this lung
Of motion, suits and skirts are spewed from doors
And the race for space is once more begun
On yellow licked concrete. From the core
Of this long lived place they rise as a swarm.
The ants of London head to work once more;
Atoms of an antique heart in the dawn.

The solemn stone ghost looks out on the shore
its fractured shell once a chieftain’s proud boast
of dominion over all lain before
the solemn stone ghost.

The island wood-stripped by people engrossed
in raising its frame. The trees stand no more
on this western isle’s wind-soaked land and coast.

The magnificence faded as time wore
down the dark stone skin, rotting plank and post
leaving but ruins for those who explore
the solemn stone ghost.

(inspired while sitting surrounded by the Gnùis Exhibition, An Lanntair)

On white walls, canvas-captured moments hang
and scrutinise the moving world. They stare
on white walls. Canvas-captured moments hang
around the room, enclosing like a gang;
the beauty of photography now a snare
for the curious living who heard there,
on white walls, canvas-captured moments hang.