Rock Gutter’s Lament

Its better to think them near home-

the school much more distant

than the sea which claimed them.

Some say all mammals are kin,

there’s ancient salt in our blood…

as their essence glides

the wild Atlantic’s watery paths,

in some comforting sense

maybe they are home…

These were snatched when bursting

with life

and this blue sea seems suffused

with innocence;

we hear the splash of children playing

when breaking waves toss their foaming plumes;

peals of youthful laughter

in flights of seagulls wheeling low.

I shall still think them free spirits,

cross-current that soften fishermen’s

rip tides;

salt– tanged sea winds filling the sails

of graceful ships.

Steve J Wyllie

Published in book ‘The Village in Us’

2023

[ in tribute to the students who perished in the January 12, 2015 Rock Gutter tragedy]