As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

3- ☼☼☼ -II

The trav'lling sun, as day goes on, doth cross

the Sky to rest atop the mountains' peaks

still sinking deeper down with passing time

to mark the hour Pilgrim and the Spouse

are, by their hosts, expected to arrive,

and so the two of them make way toward

the Headman's home and knock upon his door

which then is answer'd by two children small—

perhaps of eight and nine recycled years

respectively between the two of them—                10

who welcome them within upon command

from Headman deeper in the house, which smells

of rich aromas made by cooking stew.

The children lead the two toward a room—

beyond the foyer small they enter'd to—

adjacent to the kitchen which they pass

into a dining room where there is set

for six with silverware a tabletop,

and here they sit whilst children now resume

their wrestling play within another room.                20

The Headman enters th'room and greets the two

whilst taking seat beside the Pilgrim at

the table's head whereat he asks them: "What

do you two make of th'hamlet now that you've

today had time to meet th'inhabitants?"

The Spouse replies: "The people seem a kind

and genuine of folk who value work

and aren't afraid surviving far away

from larger cities offering supplies

with stabler economic structure due                30

to good location, which this town doth not

possess, aside from being on a route

of trade betwixt the north of Spine and South."

The Headman laughs, replying to th'remark:

"It seems to me your accident hath chang'd

the quality of land we've rooted in,

improving what was once a barren waste

whereon we had t'rely on foreign trade

to bring supplies of food for us to eat,

for goats we raise can only give so much.                40

But tell me of this water that you spoke

of spilling on our soil; how did you

acquire such elixir in your flask?"

To this our Pilgrim now recounts his tale

(which Author—list'ning through the house's wall

inscribes on paper, filling in the gap