These stone...

these stone
these painted
fingers finding no
hold or purchase
these nesting on cliffsides
eider-down white
past grey or greenness
cavil
callow
hollowed out these
cavernous and flighty
these pleasantries
grope for handholds
fall
leafmold
winged by cumulus
pillows held up with
these stone remains, these
painted images of
elder men, of fingers, finding
no contact nestling falls
screams
tries fails wings twisted in
the impossible
and freshness
salt-swept reaching for
handholds these gaps between
behind an edifice
made sacred
idolatrous winged nebulous
hidden by streamers of grey
these stone
these almost
contracted faces contort,
blackened,
too young



Peter J. King
Churchill, Oxfordshire, U.K.
peter.king@pmb.ox.ac.uk