Pantoum of Pilgrims Who Walk Beyond Their Destination
We, the defectives, the dregs
Who didn’t know how to stop
Discovered hearts in our legs
Seek always the next hilltop
We didn’t know how to stop
Or where, didn’t find answers
Seek a further mountaintop
Skip on like spellbound dancers
We didn’t find our answers
Or were our questions wrong?
Trip on, enchanted dancers
We’ve searched our whole lives long
We got our questions wrong
Have further now to travel
We’ve searched our whole lives long
And shall we then unravel?
A longer road to travel
We go west, towards the sea
And there we may unravel
Pause now by the Judas tree
We go west, towards the sea
The track has possessed our feet
Rest under the Judas tree
We puzzle those we meet
The track has possessed our feet
We hold each other’s spirit
We frighten some we meet
The dark, we do not fear it
We hold each other’s spirit
We’ve found our hearts in our legs
The end, we do not fear it
We, the defectives, the dregs.
Bel Wallace is a carer who practises yoga and enjoys long walks. In a previous life she was a teacher. She started writing in earnest after walking 560 miles of a pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. Her writing has been short-listed in various competitions, including the 2022 Bridport Poetry Prize and published in Ink, Sweat and Tears, Raceme, Allegro, Lighthouse, Magma, Gutter, The Interpreter’s House, Under the Radar and Carmen et Error. She is trying to finish her first novel, but keeps getting distracted by poetry. Instagram @belwallace_writer
Amethyst Review 