Sanday

Sanday so far from here,
When the wind howls I still feel near you,
Sanday, hear the barking sound?
It’s no seal call, no farmers hound.

Back when we found out that the game was real, 
Bobbing in a ruckle of rusted steel.

Sanday

Now Sanday’s just names on stones
and tangles and sun bleached animal bones,
Memory’s now my home,
The old world like the Great Auk has flown.

We got pinned down in a field, 
Nothing else has ever seemed so real.

Sanday. 

Thirty years that I’ve been gone,
Celebrate me with plastic flags and scones,
Those boys who didn’t last so long,
Will take no comfort from your wartime songs.

My folk are scattered and now none live there 
but my time lives on as long as they breathe air.

Sanday.