Thought for the Week: Meeting for Worship at North Gate, Faslane Naval Base
'Meeting for Worship at North Gate, Faslane Naval Base' by John Anderson
On the far side of the roundabout
Pyramidal orchid, tormentil, silverweed.
Three small streams, toppling over rocks,
Improvise tranquil cadences
While a scrum of compact birch
Crowd to the tree line
Whence swells the heather hill.
High above all, a pair of buzzards
With wings outstretched,
Bank and turn,
Bank and turn on the jostling wind
Making effortless altitude.
On this side we sit in silence
Tight against the fence,
Cramped in between opposing worlds.
Beyond the razor wire, the cameras and dogs
Labyrinthine concrete
Hems in the drear and dead end jobs
Of this death factory.
And fear ferments here:
For out beyond the horizon,
Far out,
Deep down,
Deep down beneath the innocent waves,
There lurks, in the silent black,
A primal annihilation.
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