FOLLY ON KINNOUL HILL

Some time last century
a rich Scotsman, following the fad of the day,
put up a castle tower on Kinnoul, the hill
that scans the Carse of Gowrie.
The tower mimics German castles on the Rhine
and teeters at the very edge of a precipice –
no room to put foot between tower and cliff.

Families come on summer Sundays
or chill but sunny days in winter
to see the view over river and carse below.
There’s no guard rail at the cliff’s edge.
It’s every man, woman and child for himself.

Some, drawn like moths to candle,
lean into the wind at the edge of the vertical
to impress the others, who hang back,
fearing their own impulse to leap.
Mothers clutch children,
who strain toward the precipice,
longing to break free.

A primal scene
enacted as long as there have been men,
women, children, and precipices.

Brenda Shaw