Epilogue: Ode to Allemannsretten

December 2022

Twelve months a lonesome wanderer

Through the sleet and snow

Trying to get a feel for

The experience and the know

That emptiness, which fills the void

Of summers long ago

Listening to the river run

Like some rebel riot rogue

Clinging to the past, it’s gone

The plain’s wide open for to go

Take up these wandering boots

Let the snow fall as it may

Pitch my faltering strength to ground

Where the trail has left the road

With our sullen frail attempts

Not to heal but pierce the wound

Shed that coat around my fire

Let your defence, meet its doom

Rove out, roam free long to the West

Come back and see me sometime

Live our days not for the best

But for the moments, anyhow

Home is everywhere ‘round here

Not for no-one, do you bow

Where’er I lay my hat’s my home

Hat’s off to the right to roam

Fence up these here lands?

You’ll walk where you are told

Lest you trespass, will you not?  

The tale might still grow old

Yield the short-term gains for

Something farther down the line

Where gold is taken for metal

Together we chartered a clear path

Out of the dark woods, unlike Bretton

I hereby pledge this, to Allemannsretten