Exile (Duncan Forbes)

by Duncan Forbes

The forest
Was what she missed most
From Czechoslovakia
In the same way as we,
She supposed
Would long for the sea,

But an island race
We already recall
Our maritime past
Of steam and sail
As if the sea air
Were as pure a memorial

As the land-locked
Hansel and Gretel
Pine forest smell.
Though inland in England
Woods swish in the wind
Like breakers on shingle,

And I, a Sassenach
With Gaelic names,
Surmise before me
An island's ancestry
Forest and sea,
At the source of the Thames