Stone Walk around Arundel. Part 1

A STONE WALK AROUND ARUNDEL   AN EXPLORATION IN VERSE   PART 1

We begin with firm feet

on hard pink granite – French and resistant
to hooves and to dung in days when this square
was a bedlam of selling
and the heavy moaning of beasts.

 Graven names on the war memorial

are concise in afternoon sun.

Up the hill by the castle walls
fossils like seeds are pitted in slabs
of ancient Purbeck stone.
We crouch down, try and study them,
get looks from passers by. 

Maltravers Street is solid in flint
but sandstone pillars are weathered,
crumbled, pale.

Below the level of the street

a spooky passage leads to the cells.
Candlelit tours and mystery nights
tell of Victorian ghosts.

 High above tall windows

carvings of Lion, Swallow and Horse
stare out in heritage pride.