Cluny

Side by side
they hung against what
I imagined were cool stone walls
the room dimly lit, the air warm, still, close

Outside gardeners prepared
paths and flowerbeds for winter
while around the corner, small children
celebrated a warm September midi with carillons
of tiny laughter floating skyward and through
open windows softening the silence inside

Near the west façade
excavated ruins of third century
roman baths lay exposed, remnants
of those lives, and others
displayed within the cloister’s sanctuaries

My list noted simply ‘Cluny:
Unicorn tapestries’ – almost
an afterthought between ‘Paris’ and ‘Provence’

I came to sit
with the ancient designs
what seemed like a lifetime ago
my fingers had traced similar stitches –
marking time – until the birth of our second child

Within and around the medieval walls
I discovered a continuum of
past, present – and future
vibrantly and intimately bound, one to another

What’s on your list that might slip away?

May the holidays bind you and yours as
we end one year and begin another.