Stac Pollaidh

by Alison Seller

I count my age
in starlight: years
measured by the millions.
I stand
with Suilven and Quinag,
my sister-guardians of this land.
My frost-shattered fortress has
resisted the crucible of fire and
survived the stranglehold of ice.
From desert river bed to
island mountain in the mist
I have endured.

My feet are slippered
in Lewisian Gneiss
and with my cape of quartzite, I
shoulder the sky.
Weathered and worn by
wind and storm,
I have watched as
lochs mirror the curlews
and sundews dazzle.

Named by Norsemen and
claimed by Gaels, I belong
only to myself.
You may think you know me,
but your kind are troubled
to see beyond yourselves.
You have tried
to stitch your time
onto a mirage.  But
my time is woven into
Earth’s own fabric.
I have little time for you.