Bridger

Here with walls green and bright My inn with fire’s warmth and light By a ravine low and steep An old man came in the night Hunched, disfigured, neither proud nor tall With a face shaped much like a wall Wishing to bridge the sides of the chasm deep A bridge builder was his call He asked for a place to stay Where in the night he could lay Near the pit where dark things sleep During the day he will be away Despite a frail body and limbs uneven I found he had a big heart even mid the wintry season Despite the shadowy gloom the ravine does keep But why he built I had no reason When asked he said it was for those not yet For them was his life’s work to be met So they need not worry about the depths where evil does creep He felt it was to them that was his debt For long ago when strong and young He did things that should not be sung Until he climbed from the chasm steep For once down under his soul was wrung