What's Not to Love about Bagpipes?
Well, a Great Highland Bagpipe can reach 100 decibels—
pipers have to wear earplugs,
And the wars they've accompanied,
or maybe provoked,
And that tired debate over what's under a kilt—
nothing, or the shorts known as trews,
(You knew that, about the earplugs?)
And the animal skin,
the pipes attached where a head once protruded,
and the thin, obedient limbs.
On the other hand—
the years they've persisted (thousands),
comforting shepherds on the Isle of Mull,
And the guy at the beach wearing running shoes,
practicing scales in a pre-dawn mist
with a barking dog at his side,
And Giles Crane at our fortieth high school reunion—
in full Scots regalia piping Danny Boy—
and that finally, after all these years,
we noticed him.
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