View site in Scots
Flickr YouTube

Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

Christmas Cam tae Sauchiehall Street

Sauchiehall street, mobbed wi Christmas shoppers,
reluctant dads hing aboot shop doorways;
Primark, Millets, TK Maxx, Pound Crazy,
gairdin wares bocht by their ‘Shop-till-ye-droppers!’
Sad tae say, ah wis ane o these faceless men,
condemned, the day o the thowe, tae ‘miss the gemme’,
sae, insteid, ah ‘people-watched’ at H&M;
Giein the ‘Manto’ marks oot o ten!
The air wis thick wi music o aa sorts;
Kiltit drummers an pipers, giein it laldy!
an auld ‘gut-scraper’ strugglin wi Vivaldi:
Dressed as shepherds, a lively brass consort.
Buoyed up beggars held oot hopeful haunds,
accompanied bi the ‘Sally-Airmy’ baund.

The music rose an fell, a plaintive air
wid be replaced bi ‘O, Come all ye faithful!’
syne drums tattooed wild reels upon yer skull,
as evri genre vied tae win its share.
In the midst o this cacophony,
a stoic auld Red Indian keyboard player,
whaes music held a souch o mountain air,
sat doun upon a binch, wearily.
He wore the biggest eagle-feather headdress,
that ah hae e’er seen in aa ma days.
A Jakey, in a Santa hat, juist gazed,
souped up oan ‘Super Lager’, he’d regressed,
tae some wee boy, hauf loast in disbelief,
then oaffirs him his can, ‘Y’aaricht, Chief?’