Hamnavoe Market By George Mackay Brown

Hamnavoe, Orkney, Scotland

They drove to the Market with ringing pockets.

Folster found a girl 

Who put wounds on his face and throat,

Small and diagonal, like red doves. 

Johnston stood beside the barrel. 

All day he stood there. 

He woke in a ditch, his mouth full of ashes. 

Grieve bought a balloon and a goldfish. 

He swung through the air. He fired shotguns, rolled pennies, ate sweet fog from a stick. 

eddle was at the Market also.

I know nothing of his activities. He is and always was a quiet man. 

Garson fought three rounds with a negro boxer, And received thirty shillings, Much applause, and an eye loaded with thunder. 

Where did they find Flett?

They found him in a brazen circle, All flame and blood, a new Salvationist. 

A gypsy saw in the hand of Halcro Great strolling herds, harvests, a proud woman. 

He wintered in the poorhouse. 

They drove home from the Market under the stars Except for Johnston 

Who lay in a ditch, his mouth full of dying fires.