I stand alone,
Shadowed by stone
Where spirits moan
Beyond my sight.

Time peels away
The husk of day
And bleaches gray
Shards of twilight.

Stars climb the stair
To my stark lair
Where whispered prayer
Cracks the finite.

The stone succumbs
And magic hums.
A dragon comes,
Reined by a knight.

~Castlerigg Stone Circle, Keswick, England

The first two stanzas of this work were published under the title “Henge” in the Lyric, vol. 96, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 103.  Print.

Notes:

Castlerigg Stone Circle is considered one of the oldest stone circles in Britain. This oval ring of thirty-eight stones may have been constructed as early as 3000 BC during the Neolithic Period. The site is ringed by mountains.