On raising a stone at Leslie Cemetery on 20th April, 2011, to David Mitchell, locomotive engine driver of the train involved in the Tay Rail Bridge Disaster,  Sunday, 28th December, 1879.

 A TRAIN DRIVER AND A POET

 There but a cricket ball’s throw from my home

were graves overgrown with grass and unstoned :

a husband and wife and three of their young,

forsaken by a Railway, a driver disowned.

 In sleepless nights I tossed and turned,

as a hundred times more that Bridge gave way,

and Mitchell’s engine pitched and plunged

into metal, steam, stormed water and spray.

But now an unsung figure has place

in Scottish lore and his own hometown.

A stone is raised, fine flowers are laid,

a piper plays, and memory goes on.

Be the job complete, no pride be felt,

let the Tay be calm, let the family be one.

And let pity be reserved for the misguided souls

for whom history is nothing but theirs to spurn.

 In the shadow of the Lomonds I’m stood upright

by a stone to folk I never knew. But it’s brill

that the fireside tale my mother told

returned with a mandate so fine to fulfil !