Otherland

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Deep in the mountains
there is an unmarked unpaved path,
veering off the interstate,
where The Others,
I am told,
sometimes can be found.

When I went looking, 
there was an old farmhouse, 
and a man
who came out to see
what I was doing there.
He seemed to know me,
through some exchange
in our glance,
and he gave me directions
to a hillside
where I could meet
these Others,
and hear their prophecies.

On the side of the mountain, 
he told me,
there is a secret place
that only those who Know
can find,
which opens up a panel
of the hillside,
revealing a corridor to
an entire community.
They are peacekeepers,
he said,
people gathered
in that spot,
(as in other places
across the planet),
whose sole charge is to
meditate on peace 
strongly enough
to hold our planet together
in the face of so much chaos.

After a time, he said,
they are called to another
hotbed of discord,
their strong thoughts 
like laser-beams of peace.
He told me
unexpected peace treaties
have occurred
against all odds
in some of these places.


I didnt find the hillside that day,
always wondering, and knowing,
I must return.

But when I went back,
all was gone. 
There was a path
but no farmhouse. 
In growing desperation,
I questioned
a storekeeper nearby.

He said
there had never been 
a dwelling there.
Yet I had seen it,
had spoken with the farmer.
I pulled the photograph out
to show him,
and a chill ran through me,
when I saw its blank white square.

I will never know
if the hillside still exists,
if deep within its slopes
peacekeepers focus, still, 
their minds  on peace.

I wonder if perhaps
our survival on this earth
depends upon
the intensity 
of their concentration,
if they are all that
keeps this old earth
balanced on its axis,
so perilously close it seems
to tipping.

Kerry has set us a toadally cool challenge at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads: Worldbuilding, to open the window to an imaginary world. Be sure to check out the links over at Toads, as there is some fine writing to this prompt. Kerry's poem blew me away.