Gallus Glasgow by Penny Cole

Gallus Glasgow, hen-pecked, kenspeckle,

wine-garrulous, armed and dangerous, eternally hung over.

Many-Templed, clubbed-down, knocked-up,

Spare-tired, peak-faced, silenced, too late for the last bus.

Gallus Glasgow, gallows-humoured, cloud-baffled,

grey-muffled, SAD-infected, grinning-and-bearing it.

Inner-circled, outer-circled, tear-fed Clyde encircled,

Kelvin-watered, Cart-flooded, rain-chastised.

Gallus Glasgow, shrunk-to-a-point, history-burdened,

past-hardened, slow-burning, self-medicated.

Woman-shouldered, emptied out, refilled, emptied out again.

Gallus Glasgow, narrow-eyed-watcher, social-drinker,

moon-dreamer, chancy-dancer, tongue-lasher;

hudden doon by old infirmities, biding its time.

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Penny Cole lives in Glasgow with frequent visits to Loch Awe in Argyll. She writes about environmental issues, and has also had short stories and poems published in publications such as Gutter, GladRag and Federation of Writers Scotland annual anthologies. She is co-author of a book entitled “Fracking Capitalism” and is active in Assemblies for Democracy.

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Both background photos & forground photo (all three untitled) by Simone Berna

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