Rescue Squad Poem by Sally Evans

At the Mither Kirk excavations, Aberdeen with Sheena Blackhall

Below the granite archway
he let us stand to gaze
as rescue archaeologists
disinterred some graves.

The scholars slaved in trenches
bent on their careful tasks,
scraped around with trowel points
and wore protective masks.

The stone kists' contents
carbon date he said,
to the fifth century - long enough
to rest in peace the dead.

They had six months to dig the site
and they were moving fast.
Polite and informative,
he answered what we asked.

Meticulous to calculate,
methodical to rob.
How could he see in two such wives
poets on the job,

in two such wives with pens for knives
another rescue squad,
raking around in coffin dust
to hand them back a word.

[2007]