Eynhallow Sound
Islands shift.
Dark Light
changing places.
The distance moves forward.
Foreground recedes into mist,
like the wandering isle of Huldreland
riding on tide-races of light.
Overlooking the Sound
is the stone ship of death
still aground on the shore.
So remote. So close.
Out of the dark emerge:
a quernstone. A flint axe.
Darkness flaps
like the curlew’s flight:
a flash
then falling
to merge with the earth.
Stephanie Green
Published in 'A Place Beyond', the Orkney Writers' Anthology, 2013. Performed at the St Magnus Festival.