D.V. Cooke
Two Anglo-saxon crosses
The two Anglo-saxon crosses
In the market square
Are all that remain
Of they who settled there.
The cobbles came later
As so many heads or coin
Of stone, flattened now, worn
Smooth by time and commerce.
Good was a long time coming,
Wickedness was there found
In plenty, blood oozed,
Forest cracked to the sound.
This was an outpost where
The axe helved a clearing.
Fires glimmered, swords rang
And flashed among forest.
There to disperse the dark,
They built a wooden chapel
And wrought two tall stone
Crosses in parallel.
And had them carved with scroll
And tendril, with head and beast
And religious scene they blessed
Them to keep dark as distant.
There pools of people gathered,
And where two mud-hewn
Pathways met, became
The crossing of a nation.
All that another time,
Not our time, or so we
Think. Among the shadowy
Betterment time has wrought,
Among the commerce of time
Which brings betrayal -
In sun and rain stand the tall
Anglo-Saxon crosses.
Page(s) 37
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