Seumas Considers The Sea – in the manner of Ian Hamilton Finlay

Peedie Seumas
Made a boat
Full of air
So it would float

How beautiful, how beautiful the hollow
Boat and Seumas in the water pushing
Seumas behind in the water wishing
The boat didn’t have to be hollow

The sea didn’t have to be wet
As he steered to the south, the mouth
Forgetting what everyone said
But remarking that

The peedie sea is not so deep
It lies upon a water bed
Between the isles –
I miss the lasses, though

Peedie Seumas
Don’t look down –
See a mermaid
And you drown