The Chalice of Dona Urraca.

I walk
along the main Avenida…
into a tangle of alleys.

Slab steps…up and up.
The views…the vistas.
Then descension
to the Ancient Town…

From small doorways full of voices.
Garlic soup assails my senses
The Wines of El Bierzo , Chorizo ,
Blue cheese from Valdeon…

Monumental walls…tombs…
Old bones as still and silent
as the glass of the Cathedral.
Sad Saints mournful, forlorn…
languishing in stone.

The chalice of Dona Urraca…
Gold and decked with jewels…now
lurks behind bullet proof glass….

But … I may drink from it yet…
Sip its syrupy legends before
time explodes…
and I realise that the moment is gone…

….and the past is dead as I live it.

Kristine Byrne 23rd April. 2018
Painting La Reina Urraca
by Carlos Mugia y Perez.

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