vestiges

Calciferous stains still ring
rocks overgrown with briars.

How many years have emptied
that lost creek?

Vines entwine all evidence
of an old traveled way.

Were there ever any arbutus
growing among the pines?

Smooth stones once paved a path
back to the ruins of an inheritance

stolen by shadows of crows
hording echoes in crevices

beneath moss-covered cairns
where once stood statues

now desecrated by the anarchy
of a failing mind.