The Auspex on the Mountain Path

Poemata L

Snowy Path, by Chris Clogg

The snowflakes danced upon that plane
Of sight where path emerged from sky
And snaking left appeared again
As though that road were made to fly;
She walked along that middle place
A way upon a mighty hill
Unseparate from the mountain's face
Enshrouded by a wintry will;
She sang a song, a hymn, a chant
The gentle snow absorbed it whole
The water-ice was resonant
 And with godly praise was full;
Why she walked, and what she thought
Was not upon this page so writ
She formed no words of is or ought
She would have there no truck with it;
She waited then, as travelers do
Who walk a pace of leisure there
And seem they lost when coming through
 But for lost, are without care;
Then as she sung a rustling came
 From her right, a tramping-sound
And stopping there, as if a game
 Had in this its ending found--
A man emerged from mountain air
 Thick and white, with trees but hinted 
 With this one, no time to spare
The light snow-cover thus he dinted;
"I found the place," that poet said
"Which once I think, it was a house--"
"Among the firs, below instead,"
"But dry enough no fire to douse;"
Thus the two retired from sight
Began a road above that strath
So she retired by turning Right
That Auspex on the mountain path.