Bridges or Walls?

I found this poem in the garage today.  It'd been sitting in my briefcase since I quit teaching last fall.  It made me think of the Pope’s suggestion to our current president that Christians should be more concerned with building bridges than walls.

“The Bridge Builder”

A man going along a long highway

Came at end of the evening

Cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and wide and steep,

With water rolling cold and deep.

The man he crossed in the twilight dim

The sullen stream held no fears for him,

But he turned when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow trav’ler near,

“You’re wasting your strength

With building here.

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again

Will pass this way.

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build you this bridge

At eventide?”

The builder slowly lifted his head,

“Good friend, in the path I’ve come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass

This way.

The chasm that was naught for me

To that fair haired youth may a pitfall be.

He too must cross in twilight dim,

Good friend, I’m building this bridge for him.”