On Steps Of Sand Poem by jim hogg

Cutting over Lewis Street
I had just one thing in mind
A certain blue eyed doozie
Who'd be dancing just inside
When Buff came bristling out
Hardly bigger than a nipper
And said I'd better watch myself
Or he'd split me like a kipper

And Arkless on the sandstone steps,
Like Achilles in a suit
His mane a mass of darkness
As he supervised the queue
Of cheesecloth shirts and scary hair
Outside the old Town Hall
We'd straggled in from everywhere
For glory or to fall

The Rollers weren't famous then
But neither was Stranraer
Their tunes all sounded suitable
For either love or war
When combs of steel with sharpened teeth
Were the instrument of choice
For guys with hair to tough to brush
Or to impress the other boys

A flounce of flapping bellbottoms
Bounced up the ancient stairs
Straight into strains of old White Plains
And suddenly: her coal black hair
In 4/4 time I clumsied through
As she turned her eyes to mine
And on her face the answer to:
Do six and three make nine? "

And so we danced, and we were love,
And we were everything
The music touched the heart of us
Or maybe that was drink
As fifty guys lapped round the floor
Where the girls played hard to get
The half time break arrived before
The sun had even set

I waited on the balcony
For the minutes she was gone
When Robbie C came up and said
"I'd like to shake yer haun".
The mediators stood around,
All smiling, and in tune
Mystified I shook it, smiled,
And blamed it on the moon

We jived and jooked, and twisted on,
And we moved in close and slow
Away beyond the tropical,
Beyond the memory of snow
And though flux is all that's constant,
All the pieces were in place
Including Buff and Banty
Who were staring into space

Soon Achilles said "goodnight folks"
And the Rollers killed the beat
We taxied from beneath the moon
Hung over St John Street
And stood for hours at her back door
Before I turned away
Onto endless steps of sand,
Out of Castle Kennedy


2007(song)