Alistair Findlay
The day he died
he was not working for an international corporation
or holding a placard up or wondering where
his next meal was coming from
he did not meet his death in the arms
of an illegal immigrant
or marching through the streets juggling
his death had nothing to do with
the National Health Service
or the fight against austerity
he died
no kind of subversive
not raging, blowing on a whistle
Alistair Findlay is a Scots poet and editor, written four collections, Sex, Death and Football (2003), The Love Songs of John Knox (2006), Dancing Big Eunice (2010), Never Mind the Captions (2011); edited 100 Favourite Football Poems (2007) and co-edited, with Tessa Ransford, Scotia Nova: poems for the early days of a better nation (2015), all for Luath Press, Edinburgh; a cultural history/creative memoir, Shale Voices (1999,2010); contributed to The Robin Hood Book: Verse Versus Austerity (2012) and A Rose Loupt Oot: Poetry & Song Celebrating the UCS Work-In (2011), ed David Betteridge, Smokestack Books.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
Militant Thistles