BENNACHIE RED

‘The discovery on Mars of macaulayite – found nowhere on Earth but Bennachie – prompted speculation that the first Aberdonians were natives of the red planet.’

ANTIQUITIES OF ABERDEENSHIRE

                          Thieves’ marks carved

             on Bennachie summit blast

this land as snatched from underfoot:

old stone-cutters driven out

               and old crofts seized where rust-

                            red cattle calved;

                             where under harvest

               moons from Grassic Gibbon’s

day blood-red macaulayite

is breach-born from the mountainside.

               Raw the old earth’s bones

                            and scar-faced

                            while ruddy alien

             god you are, Mars – sailed

behind the moon – you circle lost,

deconsecrated, pockmarked host,

             and, blushing, swim in spilt

                           communion wine.