Portchester Castle

These sunkissed stones drenched in the past
the vast weight of centuries within this space
The hardened flint, the distant masts
the rippling water, the parchmarked lawns
This open ground within these walls
holding memories of two thousand years
The tiled Roman patterns, the hard Norman Keep
the Church still used after all this time
The laughing children, a family day out
the people of tomorrow greeting those of yesterday
The everyday world beside the wonders of the ages gone
a memorial kept to educate the world to come
In stillness I can hear the tread
of those that passed this way before
Emperors, kings, prisoners, rich and poor
their footsteps fade and I am alone once more