The Bridge Builder

An old man going a lone highway,

Came in the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,

"You are wasting strength with building here. 

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again will pass this way;

You've crossed the chasm deep and wide;

Why build you this bridge at evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head,

"Good friend, in the path I have come," he siad,

"There followeth after me today,

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm which has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth might a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

-Will Allen Dromgoole

I love the reminder of our responsibilities that this poem provides.

Becky