Boats

The big boats’ reluctant passengers

Were woken from their sleep

Their houses burned around them

To clear our hills and glens for sheep

The small boats sailed for Dunkirk

To save Tom’s life and those of others

To bring them safely home that night

To where Tom would meet my mother

The small boats fragile cargo now is refugees and orphans

The displaced and disregarded with nowhere left to go

While in the comfort of the cabins of the big ones

The Captains count their stolen blessings in Cannes in Monaco