the Gathering

I am sitting behind the George and the sun is splitting beards of cloud. I am alone: I have instructed Mustapha the heavily muscled Turkish ex commando turned hairdresser to discourage the visits of itinerant thistlemilk salesmen and despondent poets, for I am preparing for a truly feudal occasion. Tonight the Clan Chief of the MacMillans is to visit Galloway and I am to read poetry to him and his kinsmen in Castle Douglas. As the position of the Clan Bard has been vacant since 1392 it is in a sense an audition. If I get the job I will of course be claiming more than 600 years of backpay which should amount to a lot of sheep. I am in a bit of a quandry about what to read, as my verse seems too scabrous and inconsequential for such an august occasion. I should of course have written an Epyllion or at least a wee Terrastich in celebration of the man's lineage and fame* but my only poems that mention the McMillans are the Culloden poem (below) and the World Book of the McMillans. I shall read both, of course, and the job of Bard will probably go by default to that charlatan Ian McMillan who was too busy reciting doggerel on radio 4 to apply for the job in the first place.

The World Book of the McMillans

Dear Hugh McMillan,

you have been selected by our clan computer

to receive a copy of

The World Book of the McMillans $149.95

(including unique hand painted coat of arms).

Have you ever considered, Hugh McMillan,

your family ties and heritage?

In these pages, Hugh,

you will bear witness to the heroism

and industriousness of your ancestors

and learn about the forebears

who shaped the history of the world,

like Fergus McMillan, the 8th man of Moidart,

Hector ‘Steamboats’ McMillan,

the inventor of the 12 Bore Scrotal Pump Beam,

Brian ‘Big Shuggie’ McMillan,

Golf Caddie to the stars,

and many many others,

though probably not Archie McMillan

who died of silicosis

or James and Colin who drowned in the Minch,

or Straun who drank himself to death

in that corner of the Central Bar.

To bear witness to that kind of thing,

Hugh McMilan,

it costs a bit more.

*As a postscript did you know that Anaclasis- getting things not quite right in your poetry- is an actual poetical technique? Must dig out all these anaclastic poems.