ROBIN Robertson offers some memorable perspectives on the capital city in this poem, first printed in A Painted Field (Picador, 1997) and also included in The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (EUP, 2005).
FLAGS OF AUTUMN from CAMERA OBSCURA
Thorn grows flat against the flank of Calton Hill,
wind grooming the close wall
has disinclined the snappers
in the tour-coach below; they stay inside.
The empty lanyards slap against the poles.
To the south, the castle, Arthur’s Seat:
basalt wedges, door-stops
holding open history.
Skeins of the tour-guide’s commentary
ravel past the rock
In snatches; the lone piper
tugs on a cigarette
and marches back to his car:
gonfalons of Gold Leaf
fray and separate behind.
To the north, the bright regalia
of the panel-beaten Firth.
A squall lifts the gorse
at the brink of the sea-fall:
The sky’s film turned to fast-forward
as clouds bloom
like milk in water.
The rabbits scud and veer
through the flattening grass
and disappear with summer.
Put up like kites in the pulling rain, gulls
skirl their greeting over the stones.
And where we sat, stunned, that day,
those months ago: crows strut. Their black flags
flare and gutter in the gale.
Desire becomes sorrow
just as night follows day
and today becomes tomorrow.
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