Grotto of Mas D’Azil
The horses’ heads amaze the most,
appearing on pebbles, finely cut.
On reindeer horn the natural form
shapes ears and nostrils, muzzle and eye.
They worked in icy deep dark caves,
caves marked by scouring floods.
We climb through tunnels with the roar
of torrents echoing off the dripping walls.
And find in hidden hollowed space
the bears have left their sculpted nests,
the mammoths left their monstrous bones.
Lari Smith
France—the Pyrenees