back to the sea

[fledgist]

the ocean is a being with grey teeth

what it has eaten everyone must learn

we see the smile and know what hides beneath

 

each of us has to take a painful turn

upon the oars in honour of old grief

yet in that setting finding what we earn

 

is less than we deserve and that so brief

a pain may serve as well the mark to sear

into each skin before we find relief

 

from chore and duty and learn to adhere

not only to the plain but to the hard

since nothing of our world could be more dear

 

than the one place we claim to be our yard

a coral finger a turtle of stone

with horrid memories it has been marred

 

and yet it is the only place we own

where rage and hatred turn into desire

and light exposes every broken bone

 

to show each hero that he is a liar

when he has promised an ending to night

since even truth must perish in the fire

 

for in these islands nothing comes out right

except the jokes and bullets from each gun

we get the heat and never find the light

 

but still they call us children of the sun