When morning comes they wake in th'alleyway
that Spouse and our Pariah ambled t'ward
to pass the night away from where in th'hills
that terriblest of incidents occurr'd,
confusing Pilgrim, who remembers not,
of course, the incident, for it is not
his memory to have; he asks the Spouse
about the ditch, which she confirms was where
initially they slept, but that they mov'd
to find a better spot—avoiding talk 10
of th'incident, for she assumes his lapse
in memory begins at that event
instead of knowing that it's verily
before, upon Pariah taking hold,
and wishes not to mention it again
because she'd like him to forget it all,
the gentle pacifist she knows he is.
They stretch their backs and find a marketplace
to purchase fruit to fill their bellies ere
continuing their search for sailors who 20
will take the two aboard to cross the sea,
with knowledge that their coin hath little worth,
regretting that they can't go back to play
their parts again in the menagerie
to gather coin for just another week
(though diff'rent reasons do they have to know
this fact, as once again our Pilgrim's not
quite up to date with all that hath occurr'd).
As on the day progresses both of them
do enter tavern after tavern with 30
the same result of being given price
too high for them to pay with what they have,
though none are quite as rude at least as first
from yesterday who dash'd their hopes away.
It's only later in the noon the two
do venture slightly from the docks and find
a rowdy tavern call'd The Pensive Doll,
which from outside and down the street they hear
with shouts and knocking hardly muffled by
the walls; and when they check th'exterior 40
the sign that hangs above the entryway
depicts a woman spreading wide a book
below her shoulders bare, licentious gaze
toward the viewer rather than the page
t'entice a customer within, no doubt.
Or so the two assume before they go
inside to find a myriad of dames
provocatively dress'd and drap'd across
the walls and dancing smooth, suggestively
YOU ARE READING
As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War
PoetryA troubled Pilgrim sets upon a road in search by sun and storm of paradise; a vain Pariah's banish'd from his home to render justice by the moonlit night: two individuals who share a flesh, each unalike in methods and beliefs, yet fated consequence...
