You come across some odd people,

Who say some odd things.

He said he’d been here for

“Thirteen long years.”

And I’m not sure he was joking.

That, what brought him to Orkney was

He’d “married one”.

That – he liked to play a game of giving that answer,

And enjoyed leaving them to find out who she was,

Who were her family.

Why? Why play those games?

Then he told me,

“Never tell an Orcadian that you don’t miss where you came from,

It’ll make them suspicioua.”

But I don’t miss where I came from,

Except for my friends, which is natural.

Surely it would be odd,

If I didn’t miss my friends?

I came here, because I wanted,

And still want, to be here.

Whatever is he talking about?

And whyever is he here?

And why does he talk about Orcadians

Like they’re a different species?

Beats me.