In recovery

We came from all directions
a caravan of tatters

To the uninitiated
this passage of peoples, random as a rout
a seasonal ceremony perhaps
or word-of-mouth pilgrimage
to hear a prophet speak

Some of us left there
supplicant to the sorcery of healing
bewildered by the pitiless nature of affliction
and the base humanity that smoulders
in such fevered ashes

Tatters, ceremony & pitiless – from Kerry’s word list picked from the poems of Yeats for her challenge: Get listed