‘Dhanakosa, Scotland’ by Cath Drake – Resurgence Prize, Second Place

The mist came through the glen, past the waterfall
………..roaring vertical, sweeping through trees,
the sturdy quivering stems of wildflowers and vines,
………..and uncurled itself across the loch.
A heron appeared from the grass, craned its neck,
………..lifted its legs and steered its insect-like body
to pierce the mist, disappearing into it
………..with flashes of grey-white, grey-white.

There was a track though a gate: To McLaren Craig – 
………..uphill, downhill, where heather and bluebells
lined the path to a forest floor crowded with planets of moss
………..and mushrooms scattered like pebbles.
Then a sudden drop and an almost 360-degree view
………..of raw mountains, glens, a toy town below
with stone houses, a cemetery and cobbled streets. The mist
………..rested coyly in puffs in the valleys and hillsides.

Two lovers appeared at the lookout and came close
………..to the edge. She had a mouth like milk;
he had no shirt on. The mist hung just above the earth
………..with the illusion of being held, the hope
of a soft landing. Then it sprawled across the armchair
………..of the hilltops, lolling in mountain air and the sky
splayed clouds like a suspended ocean. The blue-black loch
………..flickered its startled eyes in the sun.

As the late afternoon glowed through the lace of trees,
………..the rocky edges became softer, cooler.
The mist was hovering above and the loch was so glassy
………..it held the veins of valleys, hillsides, sculpted trees
and the arc of sky in minute detail –
………..it made the impossible seem possible, opposites visible.
The mist exhaled a burst of tingling wind and the valleys
………..shuddered then readjusted themselves.

Past waterlilies shivering in their reflections, the stream
………..rushing to be with them, a boulder where heather
climbed to the top sending blossoms skyward,
………..was the biggest mountain outlined in electric orange
and a wash of mist infused into the loch in alternately still
………..and rippled onyx sheaths. The mountains, trees,
glens, sky were a cave around me; the blue-winged dragonfly
………..dived and tapped my knee on its way past.