Leaving Bass Rock gannet colony

 

After skypointing to show

it’s ready

 

after one last dive, shorting the sea

(the crack, the pressured current fizzing)

 

after one last moment of great aloneness: a fleck

in oceans

 

after the last fish in its gut –

the fin and skin and bone of it – tears apart

 

it takes a final flight, blowing

Bass Rock into the feathery pieces   we call

 

aura or

atoms    we called

 

father or

Adam

 

©Lynn Davidson

 

This poem was was published in New Writing Scotland 35. Bass Rock is a rock/island in the Firth of Forth. It’s a huge gannet colony and has a long and interesting history of human habitation too.

Lynn Davidson writes poetry, fiction and essays. Her latest poetry collection Islander will be published by Shearsman Books and Victoria University Press in 2019. Lynn currently lives in Edinburgh.