The hunters came from afar

to the vacuum of

scraped and scratched mountains

and scourged and scoured valleys

uninformed but brave

confident and hardy

they would stay

finding something that contented them

where the land ran out

in the north west of the continent

they had crossed as ice mass melted

their skins black against white

the waters gushing

through territories re-emerging

after their long concealment

they built homes

started families

harnessed ploughs

husbanded beasts

worked together

to engineer and erect

monumental structures

sailed the coasts

exploring

and sharing products

and ideas

they used whale bone

flint and tusk

to fashion tools and weapons

hunting some creatures to extinction

their shamen helped them

to know how to revere

and commune with their ancestors

the stars

the sun and the moon

thunder and lightning

and the munificence of the fauna

of the ocean without end

in time that sea rose around them

cutting them off from their wider family

leaving them stranded

and forgetful of who they were

where they had come from

prefering to tell a new myth of island isolation

those mothers and fathers of ours