The Cold Atlantic (Clearances)

The cold Atlantic wallows to and fro Its passing rattle sucks each broken shell How many heard the heartbreak order Go? Driven towards a land they did not know Behind them, crofts where rooftrees burnt and fell Terrified families dispossessed, just so A landlord’s profits, flocks of sheep, could grow In scales of honour, was it right to sell A clan, a people’s birthplace? Like a foe To turn whole families out into the snow? And that my friend was genocide, a hell As callous as the rapine of Glencoe A dowie crossing, painful tidal flow A poisonous parting and a forced farewell, Where avarice brought down the hammer blow Off the Atlantic, feel the chill air blow. Its waves still whispering, of what befell Those stranded on the shore, too poor to go Like sand grown black with stranded mackerel