~reveries of Allington

Sunlight on my bones seeping through skies

into the stone above where I lie

one version of me, one individuation

Such silence here as stones grow grey-black with soot and time

Allington castle reveals its flowers to my remembrance

eyes falling upon blue blossoms about the waters that grow in this .. Now

….where my footsteps once fell in ancient memories

wondering if the trees long for my wandering in those lush forests.

Castle turrets reach low in cloudy skies

.. birds coast the waters where I used to look for my love

how poignant that such an image should reveal

all my memories within the heart shaped wings of a swan taking flight

Stones laid by hand, as grass grows, emerald green

misty, in winter, trees as hazel as English eyes

.. and I wonder

Do they remember me

(do they remember us? do you?)

The vapors that rise at first light round the bridge

call my spirit with their familiar

I know this place and yet…

I am so far away from Kent and from the days

of fine dresses and days in Court

perhaps it is what happened after Allington was lost to us that I fear

Were my people standing on the soil of the “new world”

as the innocents were slaughtered?

I believed my sanguine ties were new to this land

blood soil beneath my feet, I claimed no connection to that slaughter

One architect, the “destroyer of Windsor”, leaves me hope that our lineage

stood fast on English soil

Surnames and tribal names rarely coincide

I have searched Britannia for designations

found castles and Lords

but those ancestors before the “fall”

when all became “civilized”

walk only in my dreams and reveries

not wearing livery chains and fine linens

but, furs and living off that land so green

As nothing can be followed forever in a name

Allington, so exquisite, such memory,

you were not revisited in vain

© Katherine Wyatt All Rights Reserved 2017

(picture of Allington Castle... . once in my family)