La Croix du Requer, Clis
On one side, Christ already
rigid, cold, alone,
while on the other, Mary holds
a baby in her arms
the years between are nowhere
and were only written down
much later, by those yearning
that darkness could be dawn
but stone expresses clearly
how death remains distinct,
how at that final moment
all meaning was a blank
and yet, I often pause here
on my weekly cycle ride
not from any sense of pilgrimage
or because its in my guide
but to think of the man who carved it
and generations since
imagining Jerusalem
in the grey granite of France.
Tom Vaughan
