The Wanderer

The dark traveller
Across brown dusty paths
Stumbles enshrouded
In his aura of darkness
Cowed down
Under hope’s burden
Dreamy youth to brooding man
In one well-meant
Yet deceitful stroke

Ties of distant blood shred
Favoured bonds and heart’s brothers
Prematurely forsaken
Renouncing light and scholars
Cool gardens and libraries resigned
For the sharp cold of sword and dagger
With dark stingy spaces for refuge
To champion
A distant peoples’ destiny
To defend and shield unknown kin
Lambs to his unworthy shepherd

Landscapes known and familiar
Mocking him and his loneliness
Mountains, once misty and adventurous
Now, inhospitable
And lair of unfriendly eyes
Every crossed pass and peak
Rivulets and swaying canopies
Swampy hamlets and short-lived plains
Slow slashes in his calm veneer.

Lips, where laughter once reigned
Now bitter abode to anger and fear
Grieving over paths forever veiled

Yet honourable and sure
His broken heart stayed
Overriding aches and regrets
Honouring sacred pledges
Onward he trode grimly
To face his fell destiny