LLANO DE UCANCA
Price: €1400

Size: 40” x 32”

This place exists.

Not in the recesses

of my fevered mind,

or in a pot-induced vision,

but in real time and space.

On a group of islands,

made by fire and lava

millennia ago, and cooled

into landscapes from dreams,

like the surface of the moon.

A trail leads

through rock formations

big as double-decker buses,

shaped like chimneys, and dragons,

and all manner of things.

Then the path turns,

and there is suddenly, a platform,

where spread out below

is the floor of the basin

formed by exploding forces of nature.

And my jaw drops.

Orange rock, and green rock,

nestle together, and the late sun

curls warm fingers over the basin rim

and touches the sandy floor.

No one else is here.

I sit, perched high on my ledge,

and breathe in this wonder,

this strange, precious sight-

and I never want to leave.

copyright Roisin Duffy