In a little part of Belfast
where the world is not your own ,

you can slip inside a willick hole
and make yourself at home

or turn into a barnacle
and sit where the rain don’t fall

you be a million miles away
where there is no beach at all.

Or stranded within a humpback whale
that’s washed up on the shore .

In a little part of Belfast that I can’t see anymore ,

For a little part of me’s at sea
As deep as deep can be
It’s blinding me
all I see is the sea ,
deep as blue can be
and like its all bottled up inside
many things inside me
churning around like the ocean .
Its part of an inner sea .
The world is not my home .
So I slip inside a willek hole again and make myself at home
and take the evening inside ,
the little boats on the tide outlet at Bangor
stranded within my own loneliness I can see
sands sweeping over me
I’m a castaway on the inner sea
deep as blue can be
And there’s no one knows the hurt and pain
deep down inside of me


By Paul McCann