Crossing The Bridge (English Poems) Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Bennachie: A Pyramid Poem

Bennachie

A
sky-scraper

guiding cloud-traffic

ant people scramble up her sides



Osprey
Honorary Native, the Norway spruce
Is an osprey perch

The great bird plucks the fish
From the plate of peaty water

Woof Woof
This hill is doggy paradise
And they'll love every minute
Please, what drops from their waggy end
Dog owners, bag and bin it!


A Ben for all Seasons
A Ben for all Seasons
Think safe, think warm
Take boots, jackets, fleeces
For mist, rain or storm!


Nature's Playground
Peoples' playground, birds' pantry
Squirrels' hoard, winds' nest
Ferns, elfin, nettles, fiery
Rubies on the rowan's breast


Walking the Mat
Nobody walks the mat today. They click, date, dump by text
Union Street's a conveyor belt of consumers
Trailing bags of shopping like Livingstone's bearers

Toddlers scream unchecked in red-faced rage,
While child-mums flick their ash on buggy- heads

Skateboarders scrape the flagstones, striking sparks
A teenager riding a bike bombs past the Adelphi
Parting the waves of walkers, Moses on speed

At bus stops, peroxide grannies grumble at city changes
An ambulance parks at McDonalds for a human carry out

The sun puts in an unexpected appearance
The sounds are of Eastern Europe, Africa, Dubai, Doric

Everyone stops as a white stretch limo oozes over the tarmac
As large as its driver's ego, sleek's a suppository

By the greasy steps to the Green
A scraggy, spaced out youth has hit ground zero

A child drools at the tempting aroma of chocolate
Wafting out from a shop of candied morsels

In the cool of Archibald Simpson's,
A beer drinker downs his lager,
Flashing a bicep tattooed with a Devil's leer

At the Market Cross, the feeky drinkers
Swagger and stagger, frightening away the tourists
Under the indignant hooves of the rearing unicorn

Everywhere, seagulls indulge in seagull thuggery
Everyone's keeping their rowies under wraps


Miss Haversham
Miss Haversham, attachment's bad
It sours the milk of kindness
And things that happened in the past
Are better left behind us
Miss Haversham, my pin-up girl
Your function's to remind us
Savouring things long out of date
Will only cause gastritis