I saw the face of a woman in the rock

It was etched into the heart of

A tall black cliff and I marvelled

For that face, was yours.

It was head-height, cold, unseeing

At the black water that gushed below

The bile of hell washed from its eyes

Like a solemn sacrifice.

It becomes a prison in my mind, but

I can only see irrelevance where

The boundaries meet.

I hope not to flail before this effigy of nature

But I see escape in every rivet in the basalt

A cave beneath the deep where the shingle prowls

A tempest lurking frenetic beyond midnight.

And I hide in some dark catacomb

Where the shadow of yesterday recedes

And comfort creeps sterile from blue sky.

For now this heartache lives

In the nightmare, that refuses to take leave

An imagining that can only be re-captured

In the height of the storm.