About the historic brick church in Colchester (Vermont) Center built in 1838 and now undergoing restoration of its steeple.

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Always at a crossroads

this old brick church,

straddles centuries

with old-world grace.

Watching from its hilltop,

the village’s center,

observing a world

passing by, usually on

its way to somewhere else,

and yet the destination

of a few souls in search,

and souls in pain, and a 

few lost ones, and even

a few playing a game 

that required a stop and a

photo of this crossroads.

Watching that which

passes beneath its spire,

vanely marking changes of

direction of its times, 

From gentle breezes of the

customary to gusts and squalls 

of war and disease, and common 

dread and uncommon courage.

Passed by all manner of traffic 

in all manner of weather, 

in dark and with light; 

conveyed, conferred, and coiffed

as culture and technology provide.

A notch or two behind the times

until called into the now as any 

thoroughbred long-striding over decades,

with rubs, from time to time

leaving marks, with all breathes

held against the chance

of a fall; but striding, still,

not still, but alive with what is

still to come through the crossroads

on the hilltop at the village center

these many years hence 

and yet to come . . .

By Russell Willis

From: United States

Website: https://rewilliswrites.com