Necklaced from Norway to Dublin
your kingship carves into oceans
combs ivory fingered coastlines
catches the last sigh of departing tides
sinew, bone and carcass
intricate adornment,
exquisite ornament
for majestic halls.
Summer led pilgrimages of
acquisition fill wooden carts:
fine linen, beads and jewels.
Your sons, unwritten sagas
bore and frustrate you: tamed,
Thor-twisted, a more malleable shape;
counselled by Knight and Bishop.
Coiled dragon at your back
sword clasped on your lap
you dominate the seaboard,
recoil from civilisation,
long for freedom to conquer,
plunder, fight assimilation,
sing songs of ancestral anarchy.
[Mairi Murphy]
Image courtesy of Aike Jansen
