We took our boat

We took our boat to the river one day

A current came up and it bore us away.

It took us through fields, it took us through woods

The oars and the sail, they did us no good

The water turned brown as the heavens turned black

It swept us downstream and we couldn’t turn back.

The river was wide as it flowed through the night

We floated past saltmarshes into the light.

We passed some herons and cormorants and gulls

And derelict barges with rust on their hulls

The river turned salt in the estuary

And still it kept flowing down to the sea.

Our boat turned to driftwood, our thoughts turned to spray

Away from the harbour and out of the bay.

We bobbed and dipped, we rose and we fell

Swallowed up by the powerful swell

The sea it was wide as we gazed at the shore

Until we could see our home country no more.

[musical interlude]

We sighted an island all covered in sand

But now we no longer belonged to the land.

Our clothing is kelp and our fingers are maerl

Our teeth and our eyeballs are mother of pearl

We’re seagrass and plastic and bottles and twine

All knotted together with netting and line.