I am British,
but what does that mean?
Where did I come from; and
...who am I?
Let's start with the map of my blood-line - just after the earth thawed.
This changed many shorelines under; many tides.
I came walking over the now lost expanse of 'Doggerland',
blue-eyed and dark-skinned.
I carried flint in my hand.
Moving like a slow wave from the warmer Eastern climes,
I am now the farmers.
I carry with me the secret of the seed
I am the heavy stone to turn the soil of my chalky downlands.
I built circles to worship the sun
I added a sprinkle of knowledge brought by the Beaker people,
their use of copper
and their 'Eurasian' songs which were sung.
Together we rewrote the genetic code of the whole of my island - and all in just a few hundred years!
I was a genetic flood
a tide that never really turned.
I built my story in many layers. I am 'Celtic' with added iron-age. I am 'Celtic' innovation and agriculture - but I am also Roman.
My dead straight roads brought the world to my gate
as well as my soldiers from the Rhine.
I became merchants from the 'Atlas Mountains'.
I am 'Angles', 'Saxons' and 'Jutes'
carving my names into the very soil on which you stand.
Names featuring 'Ham', 'Ton', and 'Ley'
turning my island into a patchwork quilt of kingdoms
before came the dragon-ships ...and I became Viking!
I planted the Norse roots in me, into the cold northern soil.
Hear the many vowels which can still be heard on my tongue.
Later I am Norman.
I became a builder of stone towers
and I took their Latin word
changing my tongue
...but not my heart
and that tide; also never turned!
So who am I,
what does 'British' mean?
I am as British is the Huguenot weaver.
I am the fleeing Jew
running from persecution - and who is still running.
I am the 'Windrush' generation.
Hopeful souls who came on ocean liners from the colonies - to build a better life.
I am the doctor from Punjab,
the sailor from Canton.
I am a small part of everything they brought.
I am a trillion drops of rain that became an ocean.
I belong to nowhere - because I come from everywhere.
I am the strong "island nation".
I am the "genetic mosaic" which covers this islands floor.
I have been made over thousands of years
I am migration of all kinds - the result of immigrants
and that is what I feel
that is what I mean by...
being British
