Maiden Castle, upon the Cheshire Plain
Ancient iron, wrapped in land, nestled
Called so for the purity of its defense
Hymenic polity that remains
Unsullied, untaken, undefeated
Heathland, heather, and bracken
Revetted, sloped and humble
Line between earth and man, blurred
Conjoined and entwined, at rest
In rural, grainarian splendor
Salted and wrapped in silks
A cosseted, verdant thing
As with all things of man
Eventually, abandoned
Left to fallow, gone to seed
Footsteps that seek greener pastures
Irony, no man-made defenses needed
For man cannot help but stray
A good breeze, the scent of the unknown
And all thought of bliss, departing,
Soon enough, erosion,
Dusty heels, their toes, set away
They call it impregnable
In reality, merely untouched
Scheduled Ancient Monument
That time grants dispensation
To rest, to sink slow, soft, and silty
From the apex of human memory
Into ruin, into disrepair, into decay
Abandoned to the whims of time
The histories sing, descending whispers
Of old glories gone to grass
Of marvels of civil passions
Long left to cool neglect
Strange humor, Maiden Castle
Each end of the experience, made by man
(refs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_Castle,_Cheshire and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheshire#Physical_geography )