the crossing was quiet it was just before dawn and the cold grey sky was full of broken cloud it looked so peaceful just a few rays of sunlight bursting slow upon the new days world felt so much like home that i remember so clear through the kitchen window my mother baking on the crisp sunday morning through the schoolhouse window friends that have since lost their way once smiling upon me with such delights lead my horse slow past the encampment and marveled at the faces i saw there in the new days world where are my merciful friends the ones who bind my wounds and ease my fevered brow then she came up out of the crowd this stranger laid her hand to mine and gave me sustenance and strength as she explained that her man had marched off so proud and fair to seal the fate of the nation and protect hearth and home but he never came home and that though we be strangers she could see him in my eye knew him in my stance and it was then i knew i had ridden into no encampment of strangers i had come home the crossing was quiet from this earthly domain to the vaulted spires of the great beyond the crossing was quiet it was just before dawn and the cold grey sky was full of broken cloud it looked so peaceful just a few rays of sunlight bursting slow upon the new days world felt so much like home and i am so grateful to finally be called home