Prayer for the Aftertime

And if, then, you can still remember me,
my love, go to the old stone bridge close by
the cloister wall. Feel again the softness of the moss
which rests upon its top – it will run cool, as on that day so long ago,
beneath your touch. Then look into the shadow-dappled water,
and to the canopy of green where on that youthful day
we saw the King of Fishers watching from his slender perch.
And if he sits there still, then you will know that it is I
who wait for you, and all, again, be healed.
No other one will trespass there, but we alone will stand
in quiet peace and know again those moments
which will have lived and lived within the soul
no matter what the gods decreed… for moments such as they
are indestructible, and will surpass the silence of the long dark years
that will have passed between. Think not of any unquiet time –
intrusions, those, of not the least account when time and you
will see again the bright bird waiting on his perch; and yes,
it will be I who wait, though mayhap in some manner changed,
upon the old stone bridge close by the cloister wall.

From ‘Of Goddesses and Women’