As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

3- ☾☾

A week is pass'd on foot before they come

upon a town in which to rest their legs

in rented room above the only bar—

whose hanging sign depicts an archer's bow

with arrow nock'd and drawn and tipp'd with white

as though it's pierc'd a demon's flesh and dried—

within this tiny village built from wood

that comes through here whilst on its way toward

the city in the pass at th'range's edge,

thus benefiting from the chain of trade.                10

And in this rented room above the bar,

awakening from in our Pilgrim's head

and slipping out of bed and down the stairs

t'emerge to midnight air, Pariah breathes

again to stalk the streets between the huts,

inlaid with stones and gravel in the dirt

that crunch beneath his ev'ry cautious step.

He roams the twisting arteries of town

and notes th'humility with which these homes

are built; such little huts despite that they're                20

a priv'leged lot who're able like t'afford

to build much larger structures if desir'd,

and greater monuments to boast their ways,

like temples to their faith heretical

or monoliths of dominating art.

But none of this is present here to see;

it seems to him they understand and thank

the grander situation which conveys

to them a wealth they otherwise could not

behold, secluded by the mountain range,                30

but still within the desert's barren land,

and so remain a modest, happy few.

However, our protagonist believes,

as humble as this village seems to be,

Pariah's well aware of canc'rous rots

that village folk can hide behind their doors,

so when his ears perceive an extra crunch

produc'd by something other than his step's

descent upon the earth this faint-lit night,

he spins with gleaming knife withdrawn from sheath                40

to fend away attackers baring teeth

they've filed sharp to fangs inside their mouths,

who snarl as they leap with blades of stone

and make t'impale him through jugular.

But agile outcast steps aside to dodge

and thrusts his knife below the ribs of one

who only growls with greater anger at