East Steps, Skellig Michael for Peter Marinker From Blind Man’s Cove, The stone stairway ascends Steeply, turning and twisting On itself with the lie Of the land, until it is A great snake scaling The heights, insinuating Itself into the island As, in a medieval painting, A snake insidiously Contours itself around A paradisiacal tree, Its scales the texture Of leaf and bark, Its eyes the only Signifiers of intent. But does the snake foresee That, at the summit, In the citadel hidden Behind the towering wall And huge barred door, Michael the Archangel prepares His armour of revelation To dazzle the eye and daze The suspicious heart, sharpens A sword that will sever doubt, And raises to his lips a trumpet To sound the destruction of evil? Paddy Bushe
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