1 August 2020
Parting Gift
The Trailblazer
He didn’t know where to go,
or even how to leave.
He’d seen the evil
in the hearts of too many
to be able to grieve
before he went away,
determined to leave
all he’d ever known,
carrying with him
the hope
of returning one day
to his home . . .
He did not look upon himself
as brave or even wise,
as he took the trail
that led away
from the clever disguise
that called itself a home.
In truth, he was not one to roam,
or even try to blaze a path,
but to wander, once in a while,
until that fateful moment arrived
when he saw his tomorrow
while his past burned
on a funeral pyre
of words and deeds
meant only to deceive:
they were the truths
he’d fervently believed.
With sorrow in his tender eyes,
he blazed a newer trail that also
was disguised
with fury and with pride,
moving toward a noble goal.
It was a trail that blazed
away from any home.
This trail led him to a
lonely town
where, by accident,
he found
a house beside the river’s
bend,
a quest that would never end,
a woman who became his friend.
She was without a home,
and the knowing of it
filled him with woe.
Her eyes were his mirror of his soul,
without spirit, without hope.
Yet green was her valley
and bold were her days,
lush were her nights
and strange her ways
of speaking
and hearing
of believing
without fearing.
Soft her eyes
upon his own,
too soft for him to
disown
his own pain.
She was a wild dream
he could not enter,
and so she left him
one moonless winter.
She was a trailblazer at heart.
She’d eyed him with distrust
right from the start.
He could only lead her astray
this day, or that day,
or any day,
when his eyes would wander
and look with hunger
at sights she already knew
too well:
Those sites paved the path
to hell.
She left him there,
at the river’s bend,
hoping his silent sorrows
came to an end,
hoping he would find a home,
wishing his heart could roam
to fields of dreams that
might come true.
In her heart this truth she knew:
he would stay too long
with the people doing him wrong.
She walked onward
toward her future
with passion in her heart.
She walked onward
toward her life
with the passion of his heart.
In her mind, they weren’t meant
to part.
In her mind, he was going
in the wrong direction.
In her mind, he was a fool
who wouldn’t listen.
In her mind, she no longer
listened to any word he’d said.
In her mind, he was almost dead.
Upon one solemn summer’s eve
she no longer had to grieve:
she heard his voice in a dream.
He had found his home at last
the beginning was the
ending of his anguished past.
He’d blazed a trail toward
the midnight of bright light,
his path of glory came in sight,
and he caressed it with delight,
this eternal embrace of Home.
That celestial open sea became
his mansion of pacific calm.
No longer did she fear
his fate.
No longer did hope have
to wait.
She learned to hope
in ways she’d never known.
She learned to dream
in dreams unknown.
She learned to hear
silent prayers
and to receive
the gifts
the Trailblazer bestows
to anyone
who waits and hopes
and dares to truly live.
26 July 2020
