Michael Edwards

UNKNOWN TO MAN

 

 

 

UNKNOWN TO MAN

 

The church where raucous rooks proclaim

the scene surveyed by mournful eyes,

with watery sun on frost glazed slates

as winter fans its gaping maw.

 

Midst lancing slits of piercing light

and sharpened blades of frosted sward

where ghosts and ghouls and spectres haunt

a mattock lies near fresh dug land.

 

Interred beneath the stones of death

a deep and darkened resting place,

as parchment sealed with sealing wax

her secrets still unknown to man.

 

First proclaimed by hue and cry

and now the lonely scaffold stained

with blood which streamed

in innocence a soul now lost.

 

Across the square of cobbled stone

her fate discussed in taverns deep

by men who wear a different hood

and spurn the kiss of grace.