Cockbridge to Tomintoul

Cockbridge to Tomintoul
is closed again
according to the man intoning
on Radio 4
and I wonder if -
snug in his warm studio 
way down there -
he's ever been to
Cockbridge or Tomintoul
knows them as more
than dots and red thread
on a map
or are their contours
terra
so alien to him
they could be pockets on the moon?
Does he know of coldness biting hands;
of snow festooning Scottish skies
blanching all the countryside;
of shivering faces 
inwalled with no light;
outside a hushed and breathless
silence all in white?

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