And we gathered

Not knowing quite what for

We'd read the signs

Upon our doors

We set our clocks

As the message said

We left our shoes

Under our beds

I feared that I

Might be the only one to come

But slowly they arrived

In threes and twos and ones

Lights of nearby houses

Lit our faces in the dark

Twenty-five or thirty

We gathered in the park

We stood together

All waiting for a sign

Sharing food that we had cooked

And bottles of red wine

Standing next to strangers

All seeking something more

Recognizing neighbors

Never spoken to before

And we waited

The silence seemed to grow

But still we waited

Though for what we did not know

And as we waited

One by one we heard the sound

Until everyone was listening

It was rising all around us

And she arrived

Bare feet and lightness in her stride

Head to toe in cloths of grey

And kindness in her eyes more than words could ever say

And she spoke

Standing underneath a tree of oak

Convincing us that we are all the same

Recounting all her life but never telling us her name

And she sat

Down with us all on the grass

She held out her hand

And she spoke a word that none of us could understand

And she rose

Above the ground

Above the sound

She took our fear

And she disappeared