Catherine

Child on tippy-toes
on a chair
winding her grandfaither’s clock.

Wee Catherine
we are a’ in transit
facing a warld
in by’oot.

It wis saiven-twenty when you finished
winding the clock
so the sailors recalled [arriving and leaving Leith docks]

And noo we hae “electric time”
and yer grandfaither stands tall in
Maxwell Clerk waves, , , ,

For A S T R O V [and us all]
the transit clock
will strike TWELVE
and stop.

But Catherine, wee Catherine, the Bell of the transit clock now rings again.

Granite piers do not float –
stars guide
and voyaging sailors discover
that time is not ‘two faced’.