Nature is all-enveloping on the Isle of Skye just west of the Scottish mainland, full of beauty mixed with potential terror. Humankind’s history there isn’t uniformly charming either, full of the usual conniving and petty crime, drunkeness and dreary labor. But still, a marvel. And the humans did invent whisky.
Skye that day
there was the day we hired a car and found ourselves
surrounded by light and sea and sky, and saw Kilmur sheep scattered
on a green steep slope
some standing in the road and others newborn
just learning to stumble.
the road led up from the valley to the summit, skirting the small town
leading to vast views
of fjord-like inlets and tall mountains,
some across the way shimmering on the mainland
others closer, approached by long expanses of heather or waving grasses
& circled with dark clouds
waiting for explosions of wind and rain
or instead brightness beckoning, sunlight.