There is a castle on a hill

There is a castle on a hill

Its crumbling walls and windows look out to the river below.

I joyfully walked its ruins 

On a day when the sun danced in and out of the windswept clouds.

It oddly felt like peace to wander amidst

This fortress built to display power and might.

The centuries have worn its battlements and crumbled its towers.  

Its moat keeps no stranger at bay.

Its watchtower issues no warning.

I walk through the gatehouse beckoned in by a breeze

That whistles through the arrow slits I use as a window to the world below.

There is a dungeon in this castle on a hill.

I wander it’s depths and I wonder 

what wickedness was kept here under lock and key.

And which side of the heavy door housed the transgressions of time.

The space between then and now is broad

As it stretches through time like the river below.

There were footsteps here years ago 

Trudging this hill that I stroll.

Those who walked where I walk now long forgotten

As time moves along like a river to the sea. 

Chateau Gailliard,

Normandy, France

April 23, 2025