Cuimhnich air na daoine ás an d'thàinig thu. Remember the people from whom you came.

Today is the 280th anniversary of the battle that took place on April 16, 1746, near Inverness, Scotland known as The Battle of Culloden.

We remember

The afternoon sun slants

occasionally piercing

the sky clogged with clouds

My chest

tight

old vague angry sorrow

sharpened by an arsenal of facts

The highland cows grazing

the wind caressing

little wisps of hair

escaping their containment

A place of mass death

now of heavy peace

cairns etched out

lay along trails

everlasting corpses

Feelings float, surreal

thoughts sink into the grassy terrain

like artifacts

and are kicked up again

grim grief history depicted

A lone hut upon the moor

grass roof, stone walls

locked door,

a place out of time

recalls the devastation of the day

Culloden   

their blood runs in our bones

-R.M.