Parallel

Parallel Evening arrived scattering snowflakes, I sought a solitary Path Through winter’s barren woods Made magical this night With glittering snow Gracing every empty branch Each twig In the muffled silence of a downy dusk And, thinking that I walked Enfolded in the snowy twilight, Only with myself, I overlooked the footprints Slowly walking Side by side With my own – Unnoticed in the rhapsody Of the winter’s stormy Forest celebration Until The path uncurled around a curve Revealing in the gathering dusk Another traveler, Familiar to my heart, Plodding Through the windblown drifts Bent, Stooping beneath a heavy burden Slipping side to side With every step Until the baggage Pulled The bearer to the snowbound path – A solitary figure Captured in the jealous grip of gravity - And so I left my reveries, My path, Crossing through the unmarked snow, The snowy wall, Between us To lift the burden Of my companion in the twilight To follow in the footsteps – In silence - And Knowing I could not lead upon this path, Nor walk within the chambers of another heart, But only trace the tracks Outlining the journey of my friend In this brief moment of time and stars Beneath a darkening sky Till we would walk in parallel Again.