Round the Mountain, Jesse Keith Butler (March 2026)

 

Round the Mountain

She’ll be coming round the mountain. So they said—
those voices in the hollows of my head.
The promise there still resonates and hums.
She’ll be coming round the mountain.
It’s been years now, but who’s counting?
She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes.
 
She’ll be driving six white horses, and behind
her chariot, symmetrically aligned,
her troops will mass, in unimagined sums.
She’ll be driving six white horses
at the vanguard of her forces.
She’ll be driving six white horses when she comes.
 
And we’ll all go out to meet her at the gate
that gapes on life, where even now we wait,
and strain our senses for her distant drums.
Oh, we’ll all go out to meet her
at the gate, just like Saint Peter.
Oh, we’ll all go out to meet her when she comes.
 
And we’ll all have chicken and dumplings, and that feast
will spread for the departed and deceased,
who now are out there, scavenging for crumbs.
And we’ll all have chicken and dumplings,
as one does at Second Comings.
And we’ll all have chicken and dumplings when she comes.