WRITING in Scots, as he often did, the Perth poet William Soutar shows a sardonic (and rather dark) humour in this tale of the frog and the toad.
(From his Selected Poems, Argyll Publishing, £7.99).
LAUCH WHAN YE CAN
'Lauch whan ye can,'
Said the puddock to the taed:
'For the fairest days are flichty,
And we're a lang while dead.'
'Hey!' sech'd the taed,
Wi a waggle o' his pow:
'I've juist buried my guid-brither
And I'm gey wae the noo.'
'Come awa, man,
Fash nae mair for what has been:
Lat's mak merry wi' the livin
Sae lang's our luck is in.'
Juist as he spak
He was trod on be a coo.
'May the Lord forgie me, puddock,
I'm lauchin herty noo.'
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