Emptying The Sea

by Luke Eastwood / July 15th, 2018

The boats of painted iron,
Slowly corroding in the salt air,
Leave harbour to scour the waters.
Trawling, dredging, scrapping, netting and lining
For anything that lives
To be dragged on board.
Relentlessly, day and night they search
Hoovering up the fish
Into ice-chilled coffins.
Except those unwanted, useless
Or too small to keep,
Slung dead into the depths.
Fully one third of the slaughter
Never makes it to the plate,
Rotting away to no avail.
And still they search, day and night
Further and longer and deeper,
Until nothing is left,
Nothing is left,
Nothing.

Luke Eastwood is a writer, graphic designer and horticulturist, he also gained a BSc (Hons) in Business Computing Systems from City University, London. He continues to use computer technology for both work and pleasure. You can read more of his work at lukeeastwood.com Read other articles by Luke, or visit Luke's website.

This article was posted on Sunday, July 15th, 2018 at 8:03am and is filed under Poetry.