PECH-MERLE

There are monsters in the cavern
but they'll never bite or scratch.
They're fixed in their expressions.
They're fixed – and that's the catch!

There are monsters in the cavern.
They're down there in the dark.
But no-one should ever get frightened.
It's a sort of monster park.

There are tiny-headed horses
with broad and spotty sides.
There's a mammoth and some ibex
and so much more besides.

There are bears and plenty of bison.
There are funny shapes as well.
But none of them are dangerous,
as far as we can tell.

They're fixed, and fixed forever,
down in the silent halls.
Where the columns grow like ancient trees,
they're fixed to the ancient walls.

They were made by graffiti artists
thousands of years ago,
and the caves are full of monsters
with nowhere else to go.

9/6/06 A poem for children. The Pech-merle caves are in South-west France.

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