Retrospect

The bold blaze of sunset

Shooting across the sky

Final rays of day fading into the dusk

As the night draws in

Regrets flooding back

Memories of younger days

Hopes of a thousand years

Nestled within, lying dormant

Waiting for the spark to reignite

On the surface serene

A raging torrent underneath

Hidden depths, hidden strength

Strange how the Mainland feels small

The world here reduced to one town or another

But I remember standing on Luskentyre beach

Where the sands meet the sky

Stretching out into forever

The world felt like a big place in the Hebrides

In this city, a wasteland of dilapidated

Industrial sites, nowhere places

And endless tired terraces

I long instead for that other world

To taste the salt of the Minch

On the swirling Autumnal breeze

The deep, familiar scent of wool

The sweetness of the heather

On the miles of moorland

Whispers through the streets

Calling, calling

As the sun sets on the city skyline

Thoughts carried back through the years

The promise of a dream still to be fulfilled

Murmurs of opportunity carried on the wind

I remember the freedom

I remember the beauty

I remember the fear

Three hundred miles away from my city life

But my thoughts ever drift back to the moors

I realise now how much I miss the Hebrides