Women of the Happy Island (extract)

(The series of 47 soliloquies is about the women left behind on the
Isle of Barra during the Second World War.)

(A cluster of small fields. In the absence of her man a woman is dibbling
potatoes into the turves she has scraped off the rock and turned upside
down. She does not look away from her toil. She is part of the earth
become mobile and volitional, between the roots at her feet and the
birds at her back.)

Put the land in good heart
for their return;
lime with shell-sand the grass-land
for their return;
aye! sell our daughters to basic slag
for their return.

Neeps be sowing, neeps
for their return,
globes that will gleam and keep
for their return . . .
What if we have no sleep
for their return;

Be oats wherever there was heather
for their return;
what if the soil beneath that you prepare
for their return
is hard to the fork as rubber?
For their return

would you not give your souls?
For their return
will you not give your bodies?
For their return
is the bed sweet to the soul and body that ache
for their return.

The bitterness of death stays the old
for their return;
the gladness of living day halts the youth
for their return;
the round world itself delays
for their return. . . .

On no. It will not wait
for their return,
but the luck of the land will be consumed
for their return;
though the world by you and them
is sweeter in turning.