The Berry Hollow of Lag na Sméar
Here are blackberries
in seductive clusters
in heavy tresses
Numberless berries
soaked in the earth’s blood
and fired by the sun
The neat produce of tangled briars;
soft juice of autumnal days
wayside banquet
There they hang, full of lure
blushing purple –
a generous spread
My passions are aroused
and prick me as they like
I must have them
Wild and bloodthirsty
a matter of life and death
each juicy mouthful
I cannot overcome their charms!
every year I plunge my fangs
into their pulsing veins
Their sweet soft bloodiness.
To pass them by
without tasting them
Would send me into paroxysms
of starvation.
Delicious, swollen, lascivious
I fondle them
in the palm of my hand.
Demon of Gluttony am I
The vampire
that licks their pulchritude
with blood-smeared tongue
And how miserable I am
when their sheen is gone
when old age disfigures them
As November drags on
the fairy people do their business
and the bushes stink to the high heavens
Here'r bleckberries
in radgie boorachs
in wechty pleats
Coontless berries
drookit i the yirth's bluid
an stokit bi the sin
The jimp ootcome o taigilt breers;
the saft bree o hairst days
hedgeraw bellyrive
Thayr they hing, ticein
a purpie beamer -
a hertie spreed
Ma ire's raisit
an fir aw thair jags
a maun hae thaim
Wud an bluidthristy
a maitter o life an daith
Ilk sappie moufou
A cannae owercum thair chairms!
ilka year a breinge ma fangs
intae thair thrabbin veins
Thair douche saft bluidiness.
tae gang by wi'oot
preein thaim
Wad gar me kink
wi stervation.
Deleecious, bowdent, randy
A daut thaim
i ma loof.
Gurliewhirkie o Gutsiness am a
The vampire
thit slaiks thair bonnieness
wi bluid-clairtit tung
Hou soor-lik am a
whan thair sheen's gane
whan eild spyles thaim
As november draws in
the brounies dae thair wark
syne the busses reek tae heich heiven