LOCKERBIE

‘Futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.’

(Patricia Coyle)

In Lockerbie,

the sky is red

and the clouds are banked like grieving hills.

In this curled up sleeping town,

humble in its sandstone walls,

you can hear

the hooves of history

clipping the soaking streets

and the high heeled girls

clattering on a Saturday night

with the cutting wind

ripping up their thin skirts

as they bleed into town,

past the sheep feeding on the ancient land

by Rosebank Crescent

where ‘The Maid of the Seas’,

Pan Am 103,

exploded on a sunk estate.

And life throws strangers together,

throws a suitcase of junk together.

And all our memories are ashes,

all our fantasies smoke.

And no one but the simple bending vicar knows

why The News dropped through our roof that night,

crashed onto our TVs that night.

Only the God in the angry sky has a glimmer,

only the groaning tombstones of Lockerbie have an idea,

the silent sandstone

and the biting rain;

only the old Scots lady knitting

for the refugees,

ducking her head under a leaden sky

for fear

the future lands on her.

And, in a field not far away,

someone’s diary lies rotting;

a love letter

scattered in the wind;

the wind

that won’t leave Lockerbie

alone:

the red dust on a broken past;

this town’s historic wound

aching on the map.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Your poem 'Lockerbie' was published by the Scottish Review and it impressed me so much (I was a journalist at the time of the Lockerbie incident) that I introduced my Higher English students to it. They too found it very powerful. I would now like to incorporate it into the course work material I am working on but need your permission to do that.

I look forward to hearing from you - and having looked at other work on your website, can I say how much I admire your style.

Best wishes

Marian



That's a good one, Keith. Well done.

Gerry


Hi Keith!
Recognition of your beautiful poem!
 
Thanks! Yours, Henk 


You have put it so well. Well done Keith.  

Dave

Fantastic poem, Keith.

I went through Lockerbie a few weeks ago on the train – it still stirs the emotions as so ably expressed by your words .

Best wishes

Rachel