Thank God for fiction, 
the bishop and the black dog, the dog 
that told of the whispers between the walls
The hot dog that legged it to a better life
Stories saved my soul from shrinking
my way to cope, to lose myself in myth
Hercules and the Minotaur, 
Troy, Medusa with her head of snakes
Without these things my childhood 
would have been so much darker, lonely
Nowadays, holidays take in the old, 
sometimes forgotten architecture
My enthusiasm knows no bounds 
when it comes to the skill of our forefathers
The beauty of a gargoyle, high above your head
The grotesques that keep away bad spirits
Anything otherworldly keeps my soul in place…

©AnitaDawes2022