What Remains
Past the church
and down the lane
into the field of grass and stone.
Under the white sky
and the dark earth
lie the foundations
yellowed and brittle
without a gravestone.
Bare trees just as old
memories of stone and timber
children herded sheep,
pigs roamed in the mud,
and women washed
too close to the flea-ridden rats
hidden in the shadows
by the shallow stream
that runs along the edge.