Jonathan Catherall
SANTA MARIA NAVARRESE
and the Princess Navarra did make landfall one
thousand almost years ago in the shade of a
built a church with her bare with wrecked sailors
in the shade of a giant olive estimated
to be maybe 2,000 years old! then after
a decent interval the gelato counter
octopus plate and McEddus facing a protracted
legal suit from McDonald’s shoals of midges
swoop in a.m. sunlight stippling as always
caters for adventurous cactus and sea-kayak
festooned with unwilling with a shade-dappled
inlet in the shape of a bowl of earwig-shaped
malloreddus salt-seasoned indomitable timbers
skiff the horizon freighted with astrolabes
with gathering crosshatched birdcheep
with a tremendous gazebo with attic view
VALLEY OF THE TEMPLES
rote imaginary ribbed pillar sections tumbled rocks
traversed by roots of oleander grooved runnels joist
entrances where the devotees progress and offer up
to Persephone to iCloud where the sacred carriageway
stone depth in worn ruts where the straining oxen
heave the data flood representing a victory over Carthage
an almost intact horizontal caryatid her solid sculpted
midriff curves manheight beneath the bleached
locks and the straps of the daypack
by how much
more is the selfie stick or the pastel apartments
on the next ridge civilisation there are disputes about
whether the roof was ever built restoration
according to dubious 19th c. practices
Copyright © Jonathan Catherall 2018
Jonathan Catherall has published poems in Blackbox Manifold, Datableed, 3AM, Tears in the Fence, and Envoi. He has performed his work at Caplet, Words & Jazz, and in the spontaneous poetry/art collaboration event Erratic Scores. He edits Tentacular, a recently-launched online magazine for poetry, reviews, responses and artwork.