As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

2- ☼☼

The days that pass'd did carry them across

the rolling dunes upon the winding road

and soon upon th'horizon did they spot

the Spine of mountains separating South

from North, across whose range they'd need traverse

in order that their journey could conclude.

So now our duo comes upon a town

that rests within the dark of mountains' shade

and should be better for it as the sun

cannot affect the populace with rays                10

of scorching fire near as much as those

that occupy a cradle in the dunes,

and isn't built of harden'd clay; instead

the town's construction's mostly that of wood

which speaks to them of access to a wealth

 of th'richer, fertile lands our Pilgrim wants

to farm and find his happy ending on.

Yet still there hangs a weight throughout the air

our Pilgrim can not place his finger on;

the people wander listless in the streets                     20

which flow with excrement in gutters whose

sparse intervallic drainage grilles are clogg'd,

each bubbling with a fetid-odour'd belch

of souring excrement that's gone uncheck'd,

or evidently seems the summary.

Our duo cover noses with their sleeves

and wipe resultant tears away from eyes

as onward now they press into the town,

and ever fouler doth the stench become.

The Spouse can barely take the choking fumes                  30

and through her sleeve she wheezes to our man:

"How is it you suppose the people here

can stand the stench that hangs about the air?

No wonder misery's within their eyes

when into them you gaze for signs of life."

And to the Spouse our Pilgrim then replies:

"Their leadership doth seem to lack a sense

of maint'nance so to keep the city clean

and friendly-looking for inhabitants

and visitors alike, and I suspect                      40

that given their location in the pass

connecting top and bottom sides of map,

there must be many travellers that come

through here before they wander on their ways,

so I would think th'economy would boom,

and with the money flowing through this place

they'd look t'improve th'aesthetic presence of