If These Walls Could Talk This Is What They Would Say.
This tower house. You will dream
of this tower house. Medieval
and gothic at the same time,
built from the reddest sandstone
tinged and mellowed by centuries
of sunsets.
So old it remembers
courtly love.
Woo it from a distance,
walk past fields of corn, rippling
blonde in the breeze while sunlight
stipples the metalled road beneath
your feet,
peer through the gap
the trees have left,
spy a rose hued wall, a crow stepped
gable, chimney stacks.
Places can haunt people.
The curve of banister beneath
your hand,
breathe in the odour of bees wax
polish on old wood and you’re
back there.
This tower house. You will return
to this tower house, when sleep
proving stubborn, will not come.
Standing tall in your memory
it waits at the end of each drive way
you walk along.
Kathryn Metcalfe is a published poet from Renfrewshire. She is one of the Mill Girl Poets who wrote and performed their stage show ‘Mill Girls on Tour’ about the heritage and lives of Paisley thread mill workers. She runs a monthly open mic for local poets.
atriumpoetry.com 