Le
Mont
Saint-Michel

A gold Michael
tops the pinnacle,
a small announcement;
wings apart, sword uplifted,
dragon under foot, he gazes down,
further than pilgrims in the Middle Ages,
who trudged, their view blocked by forest.
A triangle in the distance points to heaven,
from the place called before "tomb on a hill,"
before Archangel Michael troubled Saint Aubert
to mount his monument there.  As the people fade
like icing down the narrow streets,  the lights turn
stone into gold: this place, this entanglement of history,
with hidden, shoulder-wide stairways, midnight cemeteries,
and massive medieval walls, arches, and the golden pinnacle.