A punk thistle with mauve mohican
nods to its own beat and the riff of leaves,
traffic, sirens and sea-gulls.
Buccleugh Parish School is boarded up
but a rowan tree bursts out from the architrave,
berries red as STOP THE WAR on the wall.
Stevie, the janitor, his hair gelled in spikes,
leans against the door and tells me
‘I write poetry too – funky rock and soul.’
The paws of invisible dogs
taking a short cut to the meadows
run for ever in concrete under the arch.
Stephanie Green
published in The Red Wheelbarrow, No. 10
This poem was chosen as one of Scotland's Best Poems, 2005 and published online in