Scottish Geology

by Robin Munro

Land massed like fantasy:
‘Avalonia broke away from Gondwana, collided with Baltica
and drifted towards Laurentia.’

I like the concept:
a splinter of Appalachia
our straggling twin
smashed into Europe
landed here.

These truly were our Arrochar Alps
back in the ‘Caledonian Orogeny’.
Shrinking, I concede,
through passing climates of confusion.

Down here on Rothesay front,
a tourist signpost shows
‘The Highland Boundary Fault’.
I place a foot on either side,
face up to our provenance:
universal, gone astray.