Norman MacCaig's images glitter with originality and wit in this eyewitness account from June 1981.
It can be found in the fine posthumous compendium of his poems, edited by his son Ewen and published by Polygon.
SUMMER IDYLL
Under a ferocious snowfall
of gulls and fulmars
a corner of the bay is simmering
with herring fry.
Into them slice
Assyrian hosts
of mackerel.
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. . .
Three porpoises pronounce
three puffs and cavalry charge
into the Assyrians.
Clouds lisp across the sky in a trance of silence.
Farther out, a commando of killer whales
grin and leap.
They're setting their ambush
for the cavalry.
And in the gentle West
a ladylike sunset
swoons
on the chaise-longue
of the Hebrides.
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