The Stonemason's Daughter

[poliphilo]

The Stonemason’s Daughter

 

I sit on the wagon wrapped in my shawl,

The men are loading the stone

Father says there’s enough cut stone on the Wall to last the world until doomsday.

The horses tremble. They don’t like it here.

 

Some say the builders of the wall were giants;

That’s baby talk.

Could giants have carved patterns as pretty as these I’m  tracing with my finger?

They were cleverer with their hands than us.

 

I wonder if they mind our theft of their stone.

I sit and think about ghosts.

The mist blows over and the wind wails like a woman at a burying.

Father leaves offerings. He shouldn’t but he does.

 

Honey drink and cakes. They’re gone next morning.

Maybe foxes take them or birds

Or even people. Yes there are people living under stretched hides among the ruins.

Solitary souls- not Christian I think.

 

I’m not to mind them, says father.

He never goes far

And when they come round the wagon, wall-eyed , hands outstretched, talking fast,

He sees them off with threatened blows.

 

We are building a fine new church

With the stone that we take.

And when the bishop has blessed it with water flung from a bunch of hyssop

No ghost will dare come near.

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I enjoy reading your works of art.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Hadrian's Wall? I like the dichotomy of the Christian and pagan mind in this poem. Mythology is one of my hobbies, and the Celts have such a rich lore.
Your poems are truly wonderful.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Well,obviously I read this one before the previous one, and patted myself on the back for recognizing Hadrian's Wall in your poem. I guess from now on I will have to read the oldest entries of the day first.
At any rate, I am really enjoying my virtual trip around your land, as well as the way you celebrate it in song.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was very well spotted.

There's anothe poem about the wall coming up!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thankyou.

I was a Christian and then a Pagan and now I'm in the process- it seems to me- of reconciling the two.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

That is how it looks to me, especially from the poems of the last two days or so. I guess it always comes to that in the end -- after all the internal conflict, I mean.