Ceci n'est pas Stonehenge’, this is the cosmos, distilled to elemental rock and stone, depicting that interstellar collision, four billion years away, a chaos of realignment unimaginable, when all the worlds we knew or didn’t know osmotically pass through each other like ghosts, to form new galaxies intangible. Written mostly in Scots, Rab Wilson’s new collection is a timely comment on our climate of zero hours contracts and benefits sanctions. From social issues to politics, from the sublime to the absurd, Wilson homes in on the unique aspects of life in Scotland and sets out his poetic manifesto for our country’s future. Rab Wilson is a widely published Scots poet, and has performed his work to all kinds of audiences throughout Scotland.

Table of Contents:
General Poems I Zero Hours 11 In Memory of Tom Carrick 13 Richter Scale 14 First Bike 15 With Andy and Amanda in the Charity Shop 16 Salmon Nets and the Sea 18 Glasgow Close 19 The Spey Wife 21 There it is… 22 James Hogg Poems Auld Lass 25 Boy Racers 26 The Teapot 27 Thir ir the Steps o Glendearg 29 Cornua Reparabit Phoebe! 32 The Mairriage Stane 35 Souch… 36 General Poems II Cultyir at Killie Odeon 39 Double Act 40 The Paralytic Games 41 Delighted by a Dallop Outside Dereham 42 A Spider’s Web Glazed with Frost 44 Chairm 45 Elegy 46 Salmon at Euchan Falls 47 Burnsiana Burns Country 51 Portrait of Colin McLuckie 53 Negative Sublime ii (or Portrait of Lord Byron) 55 Blind Ossian 56 Sir Walter Scott 57 Blue Burns 58 Twa Plack 59 General Poems III Apparatus for Determining the Absolute Om 63 Can `Can’? 64 On the Marriage of Dear Carr to his Beloved Girl 65 Maggie, Maggie, Maggie I The Lanely Daith o Maggie Thatcher 66 II Maggie’s Funeral 67 III Everything Must Go… 69 Bank Robbers 70 Royal and Ancient 71 War Memorial, Afton Valley 72 Roads 73 lermontov Fareweel Unwasht Russia 77 Ma Kintra 78 The Dagger 79 General Poems IV Six Swans a Swimming 83 What The Alien Speaks of When he Speaks of Love 84 Dirty Des 86 Gerry Sells the Jerseys 87 Gallus! 88 Fourteen Coos 89 Lown 90 If I could Just Go Back there Once Again… 91 Im NHS Martin’s Moral Compass 95 Cuid Hae Duin Better 96 A Rhyming Epistle tae Dave Prentis 97 nhs Ayrshire’s Garland 102 Leviathan 105 Armistice Day 108 Owersettins Epilogue 111 Ah wis Deid, Syne Leevin 112 The Tuim Boat 114 The Gowden Boat 116 General Poems V Desert Island Discs 121 At the Church of the Latter Day Empiricists 122 God’s Telephone Number 123 Glenafton 2 Camelon 0 124 Heich Simmer 125 Eftir the Kistin 126 The Auld Toon Schuil 127 Here We Go… 129 Polquhirter 130 Wheel 131 The Christmas Bulbs 134 Equipoise 135 Shards 136 General Poems VI Paradise Enow! 139 `Seldom Seen’ 140 Saint Valentine 141 Jockeys Destroyed! 142 Lang Ling Legammachie 143 Skeely Fowk 144 The Question 145 Rant Rant 151 The End o the World 152 State of the Nation 155 Hou the First Tory wis Made 158 Promises, Promises… 159 Dave’s Hair: The Journey Continues…! 165 Ode to Lord Winston! 169 General Poems VII The Waithercock 175 Treasuir 176 The Stanes Dwam in the Dykes 177 Multiverse 178 Burnt Sienna and Periwinkle 179 Raxin fir the Dawin 180 Veesion 181 Design 182 The Horseman’s Word 183 The Greater Sea 185 Notes to Zero Hours