Green Man

What you thought a living halo

of ivy amid the woodwork,

was sandstone carved

at a dizzy cathedral height,

laureate head disgorging greenery,

still growing in the stone.

Man not known wrapped in tendrils,

a scream or yawn,

this vine from his mouth.

His eyes are open but you

are better not seeing through them.

Rural legend, unspoken

by he who cannot now speak,

made by a mason who knew

the untold tale of a friend of a friend,

someone who delved too deep

inside the forest and was repaid

an unexpected non-blessing.

Like faced motif also made of wood,

felt by the pious in the mercy seat

(underneath misericord,

hidden from the priest),

its features, both face and leaves,

begging attention from  the flesh

it waits beneath.

Medusa faced male beguiling

(greenery instead of serpents),

chained eternal in the wild land.