WAYS
The Way of the Beaks
Chapter 19
The way of the fBeaks is a summer,
2Of heat that scorches the fields,
3And beliefs that harrow the hearts of men,
4As they labor to master the plough.
5But their lands have survived,
6In the gpitiless sun,
7hUnwatered by rain through the ages.
8And the icrops they have nourished,
9jWith monsoons of blood,
10Have the power to keep them alive,
11Still burning with visions of ancient gods,
12Who demand and ennoble and dream.
13kAnd while other men turn away from the past,
14Or bury it in tombs,
15They use it as a chain to lead,
16Their lpeoples through the mstorm.
17nThe dunes may change,
18oThe sands do blow,
19And desert monuments are scrubbed to pblanks.
20But the qtribes have weathered it,
21All of it,
22Conquered it,
23And move in the shadowless sand,
24Toward oases that promise to end their thirst,
25And bring paradise back to their rland.
✦ · · ✦ · · ✦
Chapter 19 / 40