the harbour mourns fencelessness

March 2018

how good to be swallowed up to be let in
or let out

blue expanse
spreads

the narrows
a maw
stretching ship-wide

the fence stands
to guard the ocean from the town (or is it vice versa)

lucia presses her face between cold bars and wills cargo ships

to come crashing in.

The Southside Hills in History and Song

BY Matthew Hollett

I’M NOT SURE who first referred to them as the “Dear Old” Southside Hills, or if anyone still calls them that. Possibly the name went out of fashion when the huge oil tanks were built. But the nickname seems to have stuck for a while in the early 1900s, a curious term of affection for the imposing hillside that gives shape to St. John’s Harbour.