When just an inquisitive little boy I would watch the Burn,
With innocent fascination from it I could not turn.
I noted the size and angle of every protruding rock,
Some of them were mountain tops or harbours for ships to dock.
Not to skirt the river was my Mother’s rule;
Without her ever knowing, I’d skip to a sheltered pool.
There watching bugs and beetles on that little pond,
But it was the Sticklebacks of which I was really fond.
Looking back to that time away in the days of yore,
As a man I had an urge to see that Burn once more.
And there it was still running, that simple little stream,
Just as it has always been in my thoughts and dream.
Those mountain tops and harbours are still in place just there,
With descendants of earlier Sticklebacks inside their watery lair.
Many things upon this world have really changed a lot,
But everything is just the same at that beauty spot.
Monty Alexander 13.5.96