Amanda Bell – Two New Poems
Image courtesy of Prof. Saxx
BURREN VULTURE
Captive at the raptor centre,
far from the dakhma,
you hop among spectators –
plucked neck undulating towards
your prehistoric head.
The crowd gasps at your wingspan,
as you wheel among their infants –
heedless of their softness,
their downy fontanelles.
Far from the dakhma,
do the stacked bones of Poulnabrone
stir ancestral echoes
of sun-scorched carrion,
clean-picked skulls?
Captive at the raptor centre,
your bone-splintering bill
is a thrill for the punters;
back home the skies are empty,
and wild dogs are on the rise.
TROGLODYTES
On visiting Lascaux cave for the 70th anniversary of its discovery
Inland, the road torcs into forest.
Among walnut trees, the house vibrates
with life: bees, hummingbird moths,
an infestation of squat black crickets.
They love the shade of cool clay tiles,
watch as we sleep, eat, bathe, make love.
We sweep them out at night; they won’t jump –
just scuttle, and keep returning.
Deep in the lamplit chamber, shadows
in the knotted scaffolding, they watched
hands palpate the limestone for flanks, spines,
manes – and draw them into life.
And when the lamps guttered, they scurried
over aurochs, bison, the inverted horse,
till a dog arrived, with boys and lights,
and they were brushed aside:
not far, but out of sight,
waiting for night to fall.
Amanda Bell works as a freelance editor and writer, and is a doctoral candidate in UCD. Her poetry has been published in print and online journals, and in 2014 was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize and the Strokestown International Poetry Competition.
One Response to “Amanda Bell – Two New Poems”
Beautiful words and a beautiful subject matter; the European cave art is one of my biggest sources of inspiration, and in fact I have written on and painted this subject many times. Great stuff!