Barrows

Cutting through, so deep down brown,
Gouging holes like eyes in the earth’s face,
Searching for secrets below.

The haunted hush of the burial ground
Breaks upon the perpetrators,
Still for a moment, greeting ancient dust.

Bronze Age burial tokens for a better life
Scattered round corpses dismembered, best remembered
As warriors, unbeaten.

Slowly the spades clear the way
For mysteries to be solved, sightless skulls
Tested in ways they could not have dreamed.

Rain pours on the wounded mound,
Straining a sanctuary no longer hallowed,
Trickling earth-drops darker than blood.