At first I did not see her,

a movement only amongst the rocks and ledges

through which the path was scrambling,

and, concentrating hard myself, I missed

the colour splashing in the rocks,

until somehow we seemed to both be walking on

converging paths and I wondered

how to do this, this sharing of a way,

this walking on together.

And the meeting was immaculate,

happening together on that open moorland fell,

the convergence so precise as to

defy an explanation down to chance and yet

how else account this travelling serendipity.

I looked around, thinking to see another –

so implausible it would be, just the two of us,

and chancing on this self-same spot and in the very instant –

but no other,

ours alone to share

this moment, this eternity.

And so we fell in step, a walking meditation,

our other lives a world apart from this shared solitude.