Blackhall, Sheena
Source: View of Aberdeen by William Mosman
Nae multistoreys, traffic jams in sicht!
An age o brandy, shelts, sedans, an tea
Quay - toon, green kintra lappin roon her sides
An skies that kent nae ither wings bit birds.
A pygmy placie, weety-cauld an stinch
Win-cairdit bi the soochin o the sea.
Braid brush strokes smeeth the watter flat's a bap.
Twa Jacobite rebellions didna mar
This peinter's idyll, nur the orra trade
In human flesh, the slavers' currency.
Onchancy times- yet aa's as smeeth as glaiss
Staun still, breath deep, ye near can smell the girse
Cam wachtin fae the pictur in a yoam.
Weel-seen the artist learned his darg in Rome.
The centuries hae grown...sae has the toon
Twa universities noo weir the goun
O academe. Nae whalin noo, bit ile.
Langsyne the Tolbooth nocht anither jyle.
In maisonette, bedsit, wee upstairs flat
Tenement, hostel, hospital or Hame,
In Tilly, Seaton, Cults or Desswid Place
The view o this braif toon, is't aa the same?
A full glaiss, or a teem? Throwe ithers' een
In mosque, kirk, howf, fit view o Aiberdeen?