Joan Corney
They Came from Achnamore
They slid and stumbled down the slope
babies in mothers' arms
belongings in bundles, nothing more.
Behind, the flames grew
and slowly filled the sky with a golden glow.
Men grim-faced, women in tears
children clinging to their skirts.
herded down to the sea
like the sheep replacing them.
Later they turned their backs on their homeland,
crossing the seas to stay alive.
The air is peaceful
birds circle above the trees.
the call of oystercatchers on the shore.
Here and there are stone ruins
grass and flowers growing within the empty shells.
They walk slowly around a map in their hands
feeling the atmosphere.
They look up the slope
trying to imagine how it must have been.
They had heard stories, read the history,
discovered a small missing link.
Two hundred years later
that missing link has returned across the sea
to complete the chain.
Now they stand quietly
listening to the curlew call,
the rustle of wind in the trees
like waves on the sea.
Is that the sound of weeping?
See blueberries on a bush
that here they call blaeberries,
and know that, if only in a small way,
they came from Achnamore.
Page(s) 40-41
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