Defending the Harbour

We form a company to help defend
The harbour. Close against the quay a landed
Monster of trawlers huddles, grey with sides
Flaking, and aft a grey untidy gun.
Mist shines the cobbles, dulls our waiting boots.

A climbing street links seas and town: we watch
Its pathetic burden of human purpose. All
The faces in my section are thumbed and known
As a pack of cards, and all the characters
Group and speak like a bad familiar play.

And nothing happens but the passage of time,
The monotonous wave on which we are borne and hope
Will never break. But we suspect already
That constant ache as something malignant and
Descry unspeakable deeps in the boring sand.

And on the quay, in our imagination,
The grass of starvation sprouts between the stones,
And ruins are implicit in every structure.
Gently we probe the kind and speaking faces
For the strength of heroes and for martyrs’ bones.