Ciad Cheumannan Fo Ghlais

by Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir

Mar Latha Nollaig’ tiamhaidh
gun an tinsel ’s an tramasgal,
is gur e h-e cur obann, trom, sneachda
a tha ri neartachadh na sàmhchair àraid
eadar gach dithis a ghèill ris na riaghailtean -
a th’ air an aona chuairt cheadaichte an-diugh.

Sgreuch cha chluinnear bhon chloinn,
cha tilg duine ball gu cù gun chomhairt,
cumaidh sùilean an t-astar a tha sàbhailte
nan tomhas ’s nan ath-thomhas: casad? fiabhras? casad?
- masgaichean am follais: gheibh iad cuidhteas beul is sròn.

Agus ’s ann a-mhàin air riatanas a tha cead nam bùithean – is cion ga thaisbeanadh tric air an sgeilpichean. ‘Dà rud an urra is seachnar
clisg-cheannach. Dà rud an urra is seachnar
clisg-cheannach’ an rabhadh lom gun fhiaradh bho ghuth-falbhain dian;
ach aocoltach ris an Nollaig chan fheum dùil a bhith ri teachd is tobhartasan nan Trì Rìghrean an ceann dusan oidhche
is cha mhotha na sin a bheir an doras mòr fo gheàrd
cothrom teichidh dhuinn on fhilm iomagaineach seo ’s a-mach gar n-àbhaist gun sùim.

 
First Locked Steps

Like a macabre Christmas Day
without the tat and tinsel intrusion,
and as if a sudden, heavy, snow-fall
were amplifying the strange quietness
of each brace of compliants
taking their one permitted constitutional.

No screams from the kids,
no one throws a ball to a bark-less dog,
eyes maintaining a safe distance,
assessing, re-assessing: cough? fever? cough?
Masks to the fore: they erase mouth and nose.

And shopping is for essentials only – of which
the shelves are soon bereft. ‘Two units
per person avoids panic buying. Two units
per person avoids panic-buying’ the stark disembodied loop continuously warns,
but unlike at Christmas there is now no guaranteed twelfth-night epiphany
nor does the large guarded exit
deliver us from this anxious movie back to a careless normality.