Robin Skelton

“It is a sanctuary. I stared
at the sand,
at the eggs
in the small hollow,

suddenly scared at my
wish. Terns.
I heard it "turns"
and felt a turning

in me somewhere,
a slow curve
coming round
without an end

or a beginning,
a single turn
I must not touch.
I knew the law:

Don't touch the eggs,
disturb the birds.
I felt that I
disturbed the birds;

they were so quick
and light and went
away and something
other went

away in them.
Now, come away.
I came away,
and yet I stayed

with that curve in my
mind, that sense
of swerve, of
untouched altering,

which, like the law,
I still protect,
and, too, that frightening
sanctuary."

- Sanctuary”
― Robin Skelton