Sacred Path

 

we walked the ancient path together

where ancestors had worn the land

into a waypoint to the barrow

 

carefully observing rituals and customs

under azure skies we stumbled on our way

across this land of Albion

 

the hops the wheat the barley

bowing heads in solemn recognition

of the passing of souls

 

as we walked we talked of many things

the politics the music the literature

of the common tribe of man

 

we were friends treading a familiar trail

sometimes that side sometimes this side

of the birch hedgerow

 

sometimes out of sight

but always within hearing

until you were not

 

I realised that you had taken

the opposite way around the mound

and you would be in shade and I in light

 

now there was the grave between us

and I would not see you

until we rejoined the path on the other side

 

the solstice sun settled behind a dark cloud

and I shivered for the loss

of its warm companionship

 

we had had the best of times

and as the autumn beckoned

winter would soon be upon me