Birch And Bracken Poem by jim hogg

Birch And Bracken



This is the way the wind must blow
The word came up from London town
And witless minions laid us low
The mind of London blew us down

The rugged hills and glens were swept
Where Birch and Bracken swayed and sang
And rolling fields and river-lands
Ran red where traitors' muskets rang


And those who paid for standing fast
Were left like vermin where they fell
Or drowned off Orkney‘s stormy shores
In chains inside the ships of hell

Or on the sands of Wigtown Bay
When James's army was the law
The twa Marg'rets fae Galloway
who died so bravely for their cause


It's in the stem and in the bud
It falls within the hidden tear
And from the hands that once spilled blood
To kill belief in freedom here

And history's not over yet
In tower blocks and lonely crofts
The drumming threat can still be heard
If you try listening close enough


And now we live and die for dreams
we buy to serve the chosen few
To keep them gorging at the feast
To keep us standing in the queue

They say tomorrow's just a flower
We planted only yesterday
And while we burn this flame that's ours
It's true that some things can't be changed


This is no cry for vengeance now
Though blooms of blood still bristle yet
In winds still blowing from the south
from minds that freedom still offends


2007 Renfrew

Sunday, September 21, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: politics
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