Paraffin Flashback

A Shetlander in Glesga sees a busker in Buchanan Street jooglin fire, and in Hannah Nicholson’s poem Paraffin Flashback, the reek o the fuel minds them o hame on Shetland and the colours and sangs o Viking processions during Uphellya.

Paraffin Flashback
by Hannah Nicholson

Ee time twartree year back
I wis headin doon Buchanan St in Glasgow,
No tinkin aboot ower muckle
Whan I guid by a young fellow
Staandin ootside Forbidden Planet.
He wis een o dis street performers
At you saa aroond an aboot yundir,
But raedir as buskin or bein a statue
He wis jugglin wi some o yun laowin clubs.
O coorse, wi yun, cam da smell o paraffin,
Da fumes fillin up me nostrils wi memories.
I wis brocht back den tae a winter nicht
Standin on da pavement watchin a procession
O fokk in costumes cairryin lit torches,
Followin a big widden galley
An singin as dey guid alang.
Whan da galley reached da burnin site
Dey wid baal da torches intil it,
An whit a view. Fir a meenit,
Yun smell took me hame fir a run,
An I didna waant tae be ony wye idder.

Paraffin Flashback