the Shielding

Moments move forward.  Time elapse and collapse.  A stranger upon a dusty road.  He is the same, yet he is changed.  Forever he is remembered as the one who died.  Rise up.  Take your shields.  The corpses and carrion are a riot here.  Sail the sea to live, then die.  This one did rise up and several found him there.  Lifeless beaches glisten like glass.   We sailed on for a tomorrow.  Fields of heather wave under the wanderer's touch.  You'll find them in the shieling.  Behind the field, a barrow mound.  Wild things grow there.  Faery paths march around and down.  From desert to beach to mountain, we have met him.  Moving silently through tombs and walls, we didn't recognize him.  From one to another, an attraction shielding between physical and supernatural.  He stood there tall and brown like the earth.  Bring them in from the burnt edges of soil gone to sand.  Bring them in for food and water.  Blood and wine.  Bring them all in to dine.  Bread and bone.  Shelter them.  They are strangers no more.