YESNABY

Yesnaby by George Gunn

Beyond you America
behind you Stromness
far from me now
the tides changing on you
as I walk the crowded mile
of Byres Road, you curve
in my mind like a film
I would run over your top lip
through an equinoxial autumn
putting words in the mouths
of fishermen & crofters
you speak to me still
a language of salt & gull & wave
Hoy over my shoulders like an uncle

YESNABY
George Gunn, ‘Yesnaby’, Dream State, ed. Donny O’Rourke (Polygon, 2002)