Advent 2023: Day 15 O Sapientia

 

Image: a railway platform with the words MIND THE GAP painted for the benefit of those alighting from the train, so that the letters are upside-down from the perspective of those waiting to board the train.

 

Now is the season for journeys home by train
(it has been too long)
Birds wheel as one across the sky
high over woods whose trees
have shed their leaves, as tears
to bare their souls to highest heaven;
roots stretching for a neighbour
in the dark, a fellowship
of those who know
and who have come to welcome
winter. Some of these trees are dying,
know full well this winter is their last,
lay down their lives beginning
with won wisdom, passed on root to root,
that other trees may grow in strength.
They call out to the birds,
Return to rest.

 

Passengers a-lighting,
please mind the gap
between what we have lost and gain,
between what we have given and received.