AllFreeNovel
Share Us
offering as big as an egg.
II
Long ago a man of fury drawn
by doom's insistent call slew
his brother. The land and every deity
screamed revenge: a head for a head
and raised their spear
to smite the town should it
withhold the due. The man
was ready. The elders' council
looked at him and turned
from him to all the orphans doubly
doomed and shook their heads:
the gods are right and just! This man
shall hang but first may he
retrieve the sagging house
of his fathers
and the fine points
of the gods' spears
returned to earth
and he lived for years that man
of death he raised his orphans
he worked his homestead and his farmlands
till evening came and laid him low
with cruel foraging fever. Patient
elders peering through the hut's dim
light darkened more by smoke
of smoldering fire under his bed
steady-eyed at a guilt they had stalked
