Nae The Time To Ask For Slippers

 

     The beardy man lay semi clothed upon the Moray Firth Beach,

  By his side his children -

    the youngest perhaps two,

        the weather was not summer e’en though

         the calendar stated objection,

           but the wains nae mattered the cold,

 

     two and then, no complaint but only contentment,

        I shivered my sasanack ways as Scot taught

             his children to breathe, to swim and to live.

 

     There as the waters lapped the sand,

a tempted scowl came from a northern hemisphere

   wondering of the depths beyond her cold toes,

     ‘so much lost in time – and so difficult to claim it back;

          the beardy man knew.’

 

     Just as the frozen conjured her confidence

to make complaint – she caught the beardy mans frown,

   “what is it that lies in the shadows beyond this shallow tempt?”

 

                The beardy man smiled,

                       “That which you have been conditioned to deny all life!”

 

         Impatiently, she stole the mans gaze,-

    dived in fully clothed -

                and emerged almost drowning with laughter.

 

                         ‘aye, the beardy man thought, Scotland’s healing!’

 

 

Michael J Waite 16th July 2024 (Findhorn – The Moray Firth).