DEATH OF THE BRAHAN SEER*

You saw a black smudge
across the moors,
a fiery chariot
without horses.
It came.
 
As did the husband,
playing innocence,
amazed at his wife's rage
after you were
burnt dead.
Giving truth was
your fame
and your end.
For such frankness
is rare.
 
Always there are
those who ask
but don't want
to know, don't
want to see.

* Kenneth Mackenzie, the “Brahan Seer”, (also known as Coinneach Odhar, dun-colored Kenneth) was born in Baile - na - Gille in Uig on the Isle of Lewis about 1650. He made many prophecies, one of which, when he saw a earl's husband committing adultery with a Frenchwoman, led to his execution by being thrown into a barrel of hot tar.