On your 70th Birthday

What will we do today?

A coffee with an iced bun

at the Atrium?

Then, a walk along the Cart

full and flowing fast

snowdrops relentlessly cheerful

as storm Otto gusts in

and the memory of autumn walks

as heady as woodsmoke –

(we talked of moving here and meant it)

Next, a slow drive up the Campsie Fells

to the Tak Ma Doon viewpoint

with Glasgow spread below like a picnic blanket.

Finally, a late lunch at the James Watt dock

red brick sugarsheds and cranes

your boyhood welded

to this land and seascape, the view across the firth

your joy. We will hold hands

(still a thinning)

and think of how lucky we are,

we were.