Sea-Children

Tied to the ocean from birth,
Reef knots supplant the umbilical cords
Of the sea-children.

Playing around the harbour
Boats painted in preparation
For the sea-children.

Sailing out for the first catch,
Drenched in the salt-spray
Are the sea-children.

Courting in low-walled cottages,
Wedding in the church with ancient gravestones,
Continuing the line of the sea-children.

Experienced now in the ways of the tides,
The caprice of wind and wave
That yield the herring to the sea-children.

Growing older in the same home-spun clothes
Their fathers wore
Before these sea-children.

Fateful howls the storm in a wild winter,
Tearing the vessel from bows to stern,
Taking the lives of its own sea-children.

Widow-black clangs the church bell,
A mourning mist descending,
To mark the passing of the sea-children.

Resting in the deep,
At peace with the waters they fought,
The ageless sea-children.