Bressay Lighthouse - 6/4/2021

by Donald S Murray

Today it’s been impossible to thread
light through the cloak of feathers
gulls and gannets must have shed
in that chill wind storming over Noss,

their plumage plucked and lost
when it was most required,
tumbling in a blizzard, tossed
and scattered across Bressay Sound

to conceal wave and water, fields, stretches of brown
peatland till everywhere around here
stacks of down and quills are found,
all clipped and sheared

from seabirds waiting for the hour to veer
downwards from cliff-faces,
reclaim feathers for their breasts and backs,
ensure that flight was once again in gear.