Gillian Crow
Legionaries
They’re still here, the legionaries.
One brushed past me in Chester,
His sandals clipping the flagstones
As he hurried to the baths.
Two were patrolling the East Gate
In Gloucester the other day.
I smelled the leather of their breastplates,
Heard the clink of iron swords.
They loiter in Bath with the tourists,
Savouring the sulphur of
Sul Minerva’s waters.
At Caerleon, as the sun sets,
They bustle about the barracks,
Cursing in a Latin
Never found in textbooks.
In London they jostle office clerks
As if they were the ghosts,
And walk the walls of Barbican,
Their eyes sweeping distant marshes
As far as Edgware Road,
Where cohort salutes cohort
Marching in formation.
And in the subtle lighting
Of municipal museums
They stand guard silently
Over the relics of empire
Untimely displayed,
And over weathered tombstones
With their unconvincing message:
Dis Manibus - Departed Shades.
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