‘Futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.’
(Patricia Coyle)
In Lockerbie,
the sky is red
and the clouds are banked like grieving hills.
In this curled up sleeping town,
humble in its sandstone walls,
you can hear
the hooves of history
clipping the soaking streets
and the high heeled girls
clattering on a Saturday night
with the cutting wind
ripping up their thin skirts
as they bleed into town,
past the sheep feeding on the ancient land
by Rosebank Crescent
where ‘The Maid of the Seas’,
Pan Am 103,
exploded on a sunk estate.
And life throws strangers together,
throws a suitcase of junk together.
And all our memories are ashes,
all our fantasies smoke.
And no one but the simple bending vicar knows
why The News dropped through our roof that night,
crashed onto our TVs that night.
Only the God in the angry sky has a glimmer,
only the groaning tombstones of Lockerbie have an idea,
the silent sandstone
and the biting rain;
only the old Scots lady knitting
for the refugees,
ducking her head under a leaden sky
for fear
the future lands on her.
And, in a field not far away,
someone’s diary lies rotting;
a love letter
scattered in the wind;
the wind
that won’t leave Lockerbie
alone:
the red dust on a broken past;
this town’s historic wound
aching on the map.
KEITH ARMSTRONG
Your
poem 'Lockerbie' was published by the Scottish Review and it impressed
me so much (I was a journalist at the time of the Lockerbie incident)
that I introduced my Higher English students to it. They too found it
very powerful. I would now like to incorporate it into the course work
material I am working on but need your permission to do that.
I look forward to hearing from you - and having looked at other work on your website, can I say how much I admire your style.
Best wishes
Marian
