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Prized
and published by Barnet Borough Arts 2006
Lament for an illegal immigrant
are
used to that and the sea’s chanting,
the
descant of the nets. The decks
silvered
with sea verses,
the
minims and trebles of fish
hushed
into songbooks of ice.
Something
didn’t sing, humped
in
the net, thudding onto the deck.
Its
ears heard no notes, its eyes
were
blind to the men standing round,
its
throat choked with words
that
no-one would hear.
They
let the sly octopus
sidle
to the ship’s side, forgot to stop
the
arch and leap of bream.
The
sea moaned, the fish
slipped
out of tune, the kittiwakes
hurled
screeches like broken strings.
The
men unfroze, thumped
what
didn’t sing, what was lost for words,
over
the hissing deck. Tipped what had
no
hope, had never had a hope,
back
to the sea. No
word,
no hymn, no prayer.
But
the rags of its clothes cried. The sea
beat
its fists on the boat. And the wind got up
and
howled till dawn.
Gabriel Griffin
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