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Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

The Roundabout

Each man's an embryo-cell,
Each mither cairries,
A livin waa o' bluid,
Limits wir scope,
Sneckit within,
The derkness o' heredity.

Bairnhood swaps ae confine
For anither.
Tethered ahin
The apron strings o' hame,
Genetics haud us,
Ticht as ony wame.

Schule fences aff wir culture,
Rooms us roon wi' edicts,
Displaced refugees
We learn tae unlearn,
Wirds, an faimly patterns,
Desperate tae please,
Wir latest jylers.

Brick b' brick the kirk,
Boxed in its Sabbath grey,
Immures us, preachin
Adam's gairden's sin,
An as the fruits o' Paradise therein.

Pacin wir sma perimeter o' time,
Wirk biggs anither gate.
We mairry, clappin fetters on a mate.

The roundabout gaes on, foriver furlin,
An orbit set, an we the starnies birlin,
Till lanely, nyaakit,
Coffined, cribbed, an trimmlin,
Immortal spirit caged in bane an flesh,
The trap is sprung,
The spirit freed in Daith.