Catch a flight to Tenerife,

there’s lots these days.

Hire a car, and drive,

with your heart in your mouth

and your knuckles clenched,

up the windy twisty roads.

Up and up till you clear the ridge,

pray you don’t meet a bus.

Pause at the top of the ridge,

to gaze in wonder at the sight

below, a village almost hidden,

in a basin of mountains and cliffs.

Then drive down to the village,

on hairpins like you’ve never seen,

a tiny road that wasn’t even here

at all till a few years ago.

Before that the only way in

was by sea, and walk the rest.

Stroll around this pretty place,

with friendly people and tiny shops.

Sit in the village square,

in the shade of the big old tree,

and feel how it feels to be in one

of the few last isolated places.

After you leave, you’ll still feel it,

that stepping back in time,

stepping into a little lost world.

But don’t tell anyone else,

just in case they all want to go.

Because then it won’t stay the same.

copyright Roisin Duffy

MASCA

Price: €1400

Size: 40” x 32”