(///magpie.tracking.loudness – Janefield, Ardbeg, Isle of Bute)

As in a dream I wander
the derelict shell of my old home
from room to room,

a hazy ghost of my past,
a child barely formed,
sidling now into hindsight,

sidling then into parent’s lives,
the heat of family,
the beat of another age.

Then there was headlong push of days,
both carefree and careworn
balancing themselves.

Where once was loudness of youth,
shouts to come in for dinner,
now corvid majesties, crow and magpie,

lord it over these memories,
strut and argue along childhood spaces
tracking through dust and age-long times.

This reverie of revisiting of course can but fail
to halt feelings of inevitable loss
and the measure of close-guarded love.

_______________________________

Why this location? Guest author Laurie Donaldson explains the background to his choice of location. Laurie  is a poet and educator, and has had poems published in Dreich, Blue Bottle Journal, Cold Moon Journal, BRAG Writers Literary Magazine, Ink in Thirds (forthcoming), Power Cut magazine (forthcoming) and the Primo Poetica Collection, as well as anthologies. Follow Laurie on Instagram at @powanpoetry or on X at @LaurieDD