Had never known the pancake days
Her contribution to that sweetest feast
The land she worked
Had never seen a coffee house
Nor taste inhaled
Fast food a crust too quick consumed
While toil prevailed
Had never heard of internet
Her contribution down across the years
A lonesome sound
Had never seen a telephone
Imagined wireless
Her conversations few and far between
In language under stress
Had never wanted more than home
Her contribution all that any woman wants
Or man could need
Had never thought that there could be
Another way
Nor wished it so
Until that day
Had never once believed that she might find
Her contribution nullified by greed’s desire
And dark intent
Had simply held to land and work
To family and friends
Believed that that would always be
Until her end
Had never plotted, planned or killed
Her contribution life-affirming
Always so
Had shunned all retribution
Though bereft
Held fast to memories in death
While history slept
Had never thought that there would come a time
Her contribution could arise again
And she might live
That one would come from other days
With plan in tow
Would know what she had not
Right wrongs of long ago
Had never thought she might be pivotal
Her contribution wending down through time
A story lives
Had never known, how could she then
That space remembers and relays
Fills in the blanks and notices
Appreciates her ways
Had never known of pancake days
Her contribution to that sweetest feast
Eviction’s hand
Had never once confessed allegiance to a distant throne
Misfortune’s twist
A feudal lord, a flock of sheep
The tethered wrist
Had never once inhaled the bean nor tasted sweet by artifice
Her contribution to that cause
Too distant past in other age
Had never once known circumstance
That changed her ways as that day did
While haunted she her highland home
To simmer there till duty bid
Had never known such vengeance in her heart
Her contribution now a bloodlet thing
A howling cry
Had thrown her past into the present
Outwith all time unto this place
The peat is prepped, the griddle hot
These pancake days
scottishmomus 