Frontier

The frontier means exile and neglect  
For folk seen to be in deviation,  
A dump for those the populace reject.  
Yet the edge spurs imagination  
To explore well beyond the horizon,  
Assuaging great hardship with ambition.  
 
The war ended, my father back, all fine,  
We travelled to the far north east to find  
A small port at the end of a branch line,  
Thence to a village with the sea behind.  
A nowhere, without refrigeration,  
Food rotted long before its destination.  
 
Fishing was the occupation, but killing  
More than any other. And a drab place  
Of child-height adults, often limbs missing,  
Some with marks of smallpox upon the face.  
The Calvinists ruled but were undermined  
By moral laxity quite unconfined.  
 
This tension reared in family quarters.  
Mothers' "children" could span twenty-five years.  
The young were offspring of elder daughters  
Two generations raised as if they were peers.  
The conventions outwardly maintained  
But cheap life produced conduct unrestrained.  
 
The sea caused yet offset degradation.  
Fears about whether the coming voyage  
Would be the last; bring arm amputation  
To save the net; find no fish to forage.  
The rewards the wives did vex when success  
Was squandered straight on fast drink to excess.  
 
Fish and molluscs-in other places vaunted-  
Were often free. The crews of trawlers gave  
Herrings without charge to all who wanted  
In case their next trip might be to their grave.  
Rock pool winkles, watercress from a burn,  
For me a means of survival to learn.  
 
Exotic fare came at minimum cost. From  
A shed smoking kippers on the sea shore  
I got langoustines and lobsters seldom  
Found in other parts. My parents in awe.  
The owner was so pleased with my habit  
He gave me an Angora buck rabbit.  
 
Sea meeting the sky on a latitude  
Covering the hemisphere east to west,  
Fearsome at its wildest but that improved  
By a vast, blue smoothness when at its best.  
So beautiful, unknowable,beckoning  
Its potential was beyond reckoning.  
 
The ocean started a child's ambition  
To escape to a life on ships at sea.  
That hope ending with a changed condition,  
I kept the drive, beyond what I could see,  
To reach as far as possible to what lay  
Over the horizon- but in my way.