Pull up the drawbridge, lower the portcullis and fill in the moat,
Airfares increased, ferry crossings reduced, long queues to board the boat.
I remember my car trip from Dublin to Belfast IKEA.
Hooray I rejoiced, no visible border in this past zone of fear.
Those years working in Ireland, only through the EU was I hired.
For a day trip from Dover to Boulogne, they told me no passport required.
Let us control our borders, I hear their repeated cry.
For me, long waits at the Iron Curtain, then Almaty, I have to ask why?
Bring down the walls of Trump and Hadrian, in China and Berlin.
It’s that race, that species homo sapiens is the one I’m in.
Do we want separation, to be foreign, to be those over there?
Will our new friends now be Chinese or Russian who really don’t care?
A family of nations has joined together to progress our civilisation,
To be torn down now, to eliminate just one section at immigration.
With bloodlines from England plus the Black Mountains of Wales,
Identity decisions, should I perhaps favour one pub because of its ales.
Yes, we’re all British, we all have our sovereign The Queen.
We all toast her, admire her, from Forests Sherwood and Dean.
No I’m not African, Asian, American or Antipodean, Maybe I’m Celtic, Roman, Danish or Saxon, but in my heart I am a European.