SCHOOL SHIP ‘IBIS’

– for the sons of impoverished seafarers –

(A formal photograph, Bredene, Belgium, 1917)

here they are

the little men

one is scowling thunder

two stare out, defiant

three touch furtive hands

four are forcing smiles

five are here and

God knows where

drifting with the tide

It is only an old photograph

of some lost looking boys
aged around nine or ten
on board their floating school

long dead boys
lined up in Sunday uniform
dressed as sailors

each and every one
wears old men's faces

carrying concerns
that may be those of any boy
at any time

some lost in thought
some dreaming

discomfort and boredom
possibly anger
possibly grief

I suspect there's more
but then I would

I carry my own freight

being now a father
having been a boy