Dún Aonghasa

We stumble up cracks and crags, catch our heels in the spaces of these stones
just for a glimpse. A flicker of history in the shape of these stones.

Entrenched on Inishmore, steeped in salt and overrun with weeds,
nature reclaims what man has wrought. Seawater slaps the base of these stones.

Broken walls rise in undulating waves, perfect mimicry of the ocean below.
Was it always so? Did wind and rain see the break of these stones?

Call it watchtower. Oracle. Garrison. The names we offer say more of us
than those who came before. No one’s sure what to make of these stones.

A thousand years more and this place might be just an imprint: a shallow grave
where the grass bends and breaks under remembered weight of these stones.

Amanda Schoen is a student of creative writing at the University of Hartford. Her work has appeared in Glass, Aerie, and Coastlines. She was named one of the 2013 Connecticut Poetry Society’s Student Poets, and recently completed a series of readings across Connecticut universities.