Walkers

There is a young child on a hill
her head is laying across her arms
she is half sleep in the darkness

it is night.

She sees only shapes
some trees and moonlit sky
all blurry.

How long has she been there?
and how did she get there?
Yesterday was cold,

tonight it is also cold.

There is stirring a number of yards away,
it may be the wind but there is a tall man.

He is slowly walking up the hill.

He has long black hair
and a thick shirt with beads.

He approaches
the young one
very slowly.
She see’s him but
is not afraid.

Around his shoulders the man has a blanket.

A blanket that has a certain luminescence to it.
He takes it and wraps it around
the young one and lifts her up,
and holds her close.

Again there is a stirring,
soon a few women and men

are moving up the hill

slowly

slowly and smiling.
Smiling because they know that she is safe.
These people, they call themselves “Walkers”.

The Walkers do not know
where she came from or how she got there.
That is not important.

The important thing
is that she is safe now.

These Walkers are a soulful people.

Each having a story of being on the hill
and being wrapped in a blanket
by a person who has come forward.

They will continue to
walk on this hill.
They will walk for perhaps months until
another young one is found.

Each night they work on the blanket.
The blanket is woven with threads.
Each thread contains prayers.
As the blanket takes shape,
there is a luminescence about it.

If they look into it,
they can see way into their past.
Their past from when
the Walkers picked them up
and put them in their arms,

when they were young.

There is nothing else to do

but keep moving on the hill.

They are Walkers.

Another young one will be coming.

What no one seems to realize is that

this happens before the birth into the real life.

It is as though it is a dream before life.

It is a mystery except,

the life of a young one is saved.

Sarah Brayer