Since I was a child, I‘ve liked the viewpoint of the top deck

(I once saw a naked lady in an upstairs bedroom, with a naked

Man, she slightly less startling than him, what was that thing?)

And I am no less entertained by contemporary sightings.

Bungalows tend towards competition, like here it’s the number

Of cars in the driveway, but here now, the geometry of lawns, some

Formal others romantic in ambition, here again, hot tubs. A dog

Has shat in Tesco’s doorway and a female employee is not

About to obey an instruction to remove it, But now I can

See over the roofs to the firth, flushed red to the span

of the road bridge by the sun rising in a fine mist. The pilot boat

is carving its way downriver. I know that’s an oil rig in dock, I note

the attendant machines, but is it upside-down or right-way up?

One of this couple will leave from the bus station but now they prop

Each other in close embrace making a private place on the pavement

That everyone respects. Oh, the centre of town, my landmarks are ancient-

Where would I get a pint, buy a suit? Goodness, the Quakers are still there.

Near the Uni, I like that in deference to the intelligence of its customers

There is an Indian restaurant called Indian Restaurant and in deference

To upward mobility a Mortgage shop. I admire an enduring defence

Of civilisation, a noble sandstone library not yet abandoned. As we climb

The hill I glimpse a burial on the graveyard slopes, a mime

Of tears and rain. Then a high point, a roundabout from which I overlook

 the Carse to Perth, where gracious hills enclose the river and a squall soaks

the grasslands, then I keep my appointment at Ninewells Hospital

where specialist nurses inject my eye with fluid that prevents loss of all

sight in that one. The other is blind. I’m glad that this is possible.