The day they’re mindin her wi hauf-mast flags,
Neist week they’ll spend ten million oan her kistin,
Whiles Tony Blair, wi grief his een are mistin,
Nae dout he’ll bray wi aa the ither windbags,
Wha’ll gaither in the House tae sing her praise;
They’ll deftly whitewaash ower Pinochet,
Mandela’s refusal tae jine her fir some tea....
But frien ah’ve mind o ither lang-gane days,
New Cumnock here in Ayrshire aince wis bien,
Wi pits an factories pourin wages in,
Nou evriwhaur ye luik the place is duin,
Her ‘legacy’ tae us? a thing obscene!
Her room’s redd-up an trig nou at the Ritz –
Mercat forces wull see she isnae missed.


Rab Wilson, the Centre's poet in virtual residence, composed this poem to mark the death of Baroness Thatcher. Rab has a long association with the former mining town of New Cumnock. The views expressed in this poem are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Scots Language Centre.