magic telescope,

If you had a magic telescope,

That could let you see back through time,

You might see hunters

Walking in line, tracking beasts

Across the plains of Doggerland.

Then adjust the eyepiece

And watch seas rolling in

To make new islands,

Enacting Brexit long before our time began

Doggerland drowned

And now people sailed above

Where men and mammoths had once walked

Travelling on rafts and other craft,

Dugouts, sown planks,

Or skin stretched over wooden frames

Many people fed the fishes

Froze or drowned

But they still came,

Pirates, slavers, the enslaved, the invaders

The missionaries and refugees.

Boats changed,

Now their propellers deafened whales

And then people came in planes and trains,

Some travelled legitimately,

Some travelled in luxury

Oligarchs with money

Were greeted with ceremony

But many risked their lives

Came whatever way they can

Staggering up the shingle beach

Towards the idea of an island

That has always always changed.