The national trust

The national trust

by Katrina Moinet

Trust, we trust in You

we trust

Your tryst of memorabilia

pride of a nation based on

foundations brittle of bone

rattle of door, chains

our heavy thoughts towards

Your backwards mystery

leaves fingers blistered by

all we’re no longer permitted

to touch.

Trust, we trust Your vision,

clear

conscience restored, censored sores

heeled on cobbled echoed steps

to reveal bare-branched roots

that climb blackened stones

blocked history groans

under Your weighty vanity

Alhambra grandeur drops on

shouldered silence; acknowledge

violence gave rise to recompensed grotesques.

Trust, we tiptoe forwards in our trust of

solid

stone underfoot that tips and clacks, tips

tips back to reveal cracks

in Your Right Honourable accounts

green memory counts the sixteen-

thousand pound carpets and drapes

such bling hurts my eye, bursts

my ivory ear drum, a distant ringing

er cof am all the unnamed souls

for whom no bell tolls.