Aifter the boombers cleck
and the sodgers traik thro the skau
there’s an auld air sterts up –
bubblin and greetin.
It’s a ballant mithers sing
on their hunkers i the stour
for a bairn deid.
They ken it by hert.
—Alastair Mackie, “Pietà”
published in The Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse, @canongatebooks, 2021
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #poem #poetry #warpoem #warpoetry