A Dolmen Remembered - Carlow 1989

A paddock now well-drilled with beet,
extension of production.
Half a hectare added to one hundred
where once was ruin.

Ruin, but not chaos, the legacy of man,
the stones by which he lived
three thousand years ago:
the stones that marked his ashes
there under the sacred hill.
Stones, carved to his beliefs
now cast aside by monsters
beyond imagining.

Monsters: smoking, grunting,
heaving, clawing, goaded by
his sons in desecration
of his immortality.

Much had he seen,
this last of pagan kings:
the steps of Patrick
with words of loving God,
the rough stone church
beside his dwelling place
and, ultimate disgrace,
the graves of unbaptised
pagan children of a Christian race.

He guarded those who died
without a name.
His ashes mourned
as they dispersed,
the evil end of all.

By: John O'Neill 10 Glendale Road
Whangarei, New Zealand
email(kiwijohn@igrin.co.nz)