Njuggle

It’s up to you, said the horse

Hoarsely 

You can stop me anytime you want

Just dig in your heels

And say the magic word

You know the magic word

Don’t you?

Unity on Mull, 1941

I remember

There was no look in her eye

But how she danced

Quicksteps, a Highland Scottische

But the waltz, oh the waltz 

We were boys, too young for war 

Not for whisky 

We queued, jostled, fought 

To touch, hold, clutch and spin

Rumours abounded 

She’d have you in the heather

Or on the tender tables

There was talk of prowling submarines

U boats lurking off Inch Kenneth

She was seen signalling

Hitler’s love

Sliding on Slipperene

Never a stumble

Nothing to see here 

Nothing to see 

Oh, how she danced

*Njuggle: Shetland dialect. A water-horse. Deceptive spirit taking the form of a pony, often to fatal effect for the rider

*Unity in Mull: Unity Mitford, one of the infamous Mitford sisters, shot herself in a failed suicide attempt in Munich in 1939. She was an obsessive acolyte of Adolf Hitler. She spent the rest of her brief life on the Redesdale family’s private island of Inch Kenneth, off Mull. Many stories surround her time there during World War Two.