Trade Winds
Centuries of sailors knowing
Setting sail and cutting ties
Bravely waving tears unflowing
Beyond an age of longing lies
Parted by oceans man and mother
He floating in Poseidon’s care
Only loss brings them together
When at night he’s never there
At Thirty Degrees North she sits
Becalmed, bereft, bereaved
She never stirs, moving aches
No message yet received
So far from home, steady boys
In league with Neptune’s trust
In family worlds of newborn joys
New life continues as it must
From photographs memories made
Fragmented moments, fading
Shining boots, brave salutes
Splendid uniforms parading
Return you men, many lives
bound within that imperative
For endless dread are wives
At homecoming alone can live
By Patrick Mackeown, September 2006