Berneray

Down the long beach
we ran
In the summer
of endless sun

Innocence shone down
in the benign
light of evening
when darkness never came

The islands winked
at us from near
and from further away
cloudcapped to the north

Nothing could change
as the sun smiled
setting in the west
of autumn

The exhileration of
a fierce November gale
bound us together on
that boundless strand

Softly fell the
white snow of winter
as our footsteps
trailed us home

The light faded
that winter
when events far away
came to touch us here

As the crown of clouds
settled over the Clisham
a dark form rolled
in the surf on the beach

One of many to wash up
lost in the war
far out at sea
to the menace from the deep

We found him
No mark or name
His last resting place
by the timeless chapel

't Was also where
the lesson was learned
as our innocence drifted
away on the outgoing tide