i.m. Alan David Miller, died 6 July 1988, aged 31, on Piper Alpha
Crescent o cork, new moon, owld
moon, bracket, comma,
oppen or closed speech mark,
pitted and scarred, half
o a fisheen net float.
Piece o driftwid, sea-smooth,
a breachan whale,
or boat-shaepid, the hull
o an owld saileen ship,
mast and sail
sunk in the deep.
Fragment o sea china,
fae a saacer, a plaete?
blue eerieorums, teasan,
a laef, twathree petals, twa dots,
raindrops mibby.
Razorbill skull, fine bone,
Eye socket wi Munch’s scream,
top half o the beak, you could
slide off, white stripe on the dark,
the hook on the end like a claa.
Aal fund wan day on the shore,
the summer you died; the fire,
the toppled rig, fower
months on the seabed.
Fower mementoes kept.
Pented at school by a son;
Noo, thirty five years laete,
taegither under gless…
Along wi the faether o a whaap
tae mind you o the music o wir
summers; mournful noo,
a pibroch, lament for you.
Alison Miller
Alison Miller was born and brought up in Orkney and returned there to live in 2013. Her first novel, Demo, was published by Penguin and shortlisted for the Saltire Book of the Year. She has had poetry, short fiction and non-fiction published in various outlets.