Andrea Sonda on Unsplash

    Window in the Rock

When you glimpse it
you’re crammed into a floating bathtub
with a teenage boy at the tiller,
hurtling towards likely death.

At the moment you think
if I live, Mum can never know,
you look back and spot the rogue pixel
glinting high on the cliff.

You’ve heard it is not a window
but a void blasted by a long-dead seigneur;
a ledge for winching up vraic;
a hide for spying guillemots.

You don’t know your future self
is up there – settling her children,
stepping past DANGER SHEER DROP
into a dark prism that ends in light.

Braced for the rush
she inches forward, palms pressed to rock,
and cheers for a tiny boat 250 feet below
as it vaults the ferry’s wake.