Gargoyles
When their hearts and bodies ached,
they imagined beings able
to transcend toil only love
made tolerable; and the hurt
embryonic wings unfurling
from sore shoulders reluctantly,
like new Horse Chestnut leaves.
More cloister bat than angel,
these dumb creatures
summoned in torment
can’t offer hope or salvation,
but they’ll sit with you all day
though you refuse their succour:
until you’re less lonely than them.
Katerina Neocleous is a full time mother and home educator. She has had poems published in various poetry magazines, most recently in Obsessed With Pipework and Clear Poetry. She is based in North West England.