The Builder

Humbly dedicated to Hank Ward
See you on the other side...

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came in the evening, cold and gray;
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide;
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man, said a fellow pilgrim near,
You are wasting your time with building here.
You never again will pass this way.
Your journey will end with the closing day
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide.
Why build you this bridge at evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old, gray head.
"Good friend, in the way that I have come, " he said,"
there followeth after me today
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
So you see, I am building the bridge for him."

~~Will Allen Dromgoole~~