Setting Sail
Gather the children
Pack their togs and toys
Collect the silver, the precious things
That will whisper of home from far away
In a strange and distant land.
Bid farewell to hearth and home
That saw your wedding night,
Days and days of labour,
Nights of weary rest,
The births and deaths and nursing babes.
Embrace one last time
Those who stay behind.
This house, these walls
Will be known from hence in memory alone.
Walk the cobbles of the High Street
Tip a final nod to the farrier,
Doff a cap to the baker.
Give a whistle to the collies
That scamper at your heels.
Wander down the close
And up the wynd
Past brae and burn
To harbour and the strand.
Boats strain at their moorings
And wind sings through their rigging.
Harken to the gulls and cormorants
That cry their brave defiance
To the sea you dare to cross.
Gaze across the firth
Once more
And then no more.
Hoist the bag, lift the case.
Don a brave braw face to board the coach
That carries you to Greenock’s port.
Then one last gaze
Across the generations
Fathers and sons,
Mother’s and daughters
That brought you here.
Then set sail.
