Collected Poems Anthony Burgess (best pdf reader for ebooks txt) 📖

be made clean.’ Then they waited

For Miriam to say more, but she said no more.

Her eyes were open, but said no more. And Aaron

Closed her eyes, and then the wailing began.

The angel, it was shuddered about the camp.

Aaron said: ‘Let the soul of this thy servant

Go calmly to its haven, where is no pain,

Where the mill of the heart grinds no more

Of the bread of tribulation.’ Moses touched her face.

‘Rest, Miriam, rest.’ Then left and went

Into the dark to weep. So they buried her –

Another grave to mark their journey. Buried her,

With rites according to the law of Israel.

Nothing stayed, but there was always the law…

And Moses was administering the law one day

When Caleb appeared to speak of a monstrous serpent

Voided from a child’s body. ‘A bad omen.

That is the general feeling.’ But Moses said:

‘Let us hear nothing of omens. Let us hear rather

Of foolishness. What has the child been eating?’

So the story came out: some of the Israelites

Sick of their diet of mutton, traded a sheep

For a pig from a wandering tribe that herded pigs.

‘The pig,’ said Moses, ‘is not like other beasts.

It harbours worms in its gut and gives the worms

To those who eat it. Call it an act of revenge,

Though posthumous.’ Nobody smiled. Loudly he said:

‘Does it occur to no one that this serpent

Is a consequence of eating forbidden flesh –

Not a sign from heaven, but the passing on

Of a disease from beast to man? Can they not think?

Are they to be treated for ever like children?’ Caleb said:

‘There is no instruction about this. What is the law?

It seems not to be covered by the basic ten.’ –

‘More laws,’ said Moses. ‘No food from now on may be eaten

Without some act of supervision, God help us.

We need priestly intervention even there.

The body of the law must wax fat

Because the brain of the Israelite is small.

They cannot eat, God help us, without being

Told what to eat. Shall we put the spoon to their mouths?’

And, on another day, when Aaron was called

To see a sick child, its loins inflamed,

And its parents applying some filth of fat and spittle,

He saw that the child was uncircumcised. ‘Dust,’ he said,

‘Dirt has been trapped there.’ The father: ‘We did not think.’ –

‘You did not think,’ said Aaron. ‘And yet Zipporah,

Wife of our leader Moses, herself gave to God

As an offering the foreskin of her firstborn.

Was she not at that moment divinely inspired

To do what was for the child’s good? We are, above all,

A people of cleanliness. Remember that.

We are not disease-ridden rats of the wilderness.

Your son shall be circumcised.’ But the mother said:

‘I am not Zipporah. I could not take the knife

To my precious.’ Aaron sighed. ‘It shall be done for you.

So God be with you.’ And wearily he left.

But there was yet another day when Moses

Sat with his problems, in the cool of a cave,

And a tribal leader came with another problem,

A violation of the law of the Sabbath.

‘What were they doing?’ Moses wearily asked. –

‘Gathering palm fronds to feed a fire. It seemed

Harmless enough, but, knowing that the covenant

Is strict on the matter, knowing that you yourself – ’

‘Yes?’ said Moses. ‘ – Set great store by the

Punctilious observance, as you term it

Somewhat grandiloquently, is of the very

Essence of the law. It is to do with man’s duty,

Duty, not right, to abstain from labour

That the body may be at peace and the spirit

At one with God. With God. One day in seven –

Can we not spare that day to honour our God?’ –

‘This,’ said the tribal leader, ‘is generally

Recognised and accepted, but – after all,

The gathering of a few palm fronds’ – ‘Yes?’ said Moses.

‘Wel,’ said the leader, ‘we were somewhat unsure

Of an appropriate penalty. The men in question

Were, naturally, rebuked. But they did not seem to be

Truly repentant. And then what happened was – ’

‘Yes?’ said Moses. – ‘What happened was that one of them

Was discovered later looking for dry sticks –

For tinder. The rebuke had been of no avail.’ –

‘So now?’ said Moses. – ‘Now I seek instruction.

As to the appropriate mode of punishment.’

Then Moses felt the wrestling within

And the curse of his leadership was sour in his mouth,

But, wearily, hopelessly, he said: ‘The holy rest

Of the Sabbath must not be defiled. Let the miscreants

Be stoned to death.’ The tribal leader did not

Think that he… ‘Forgive me, I do not think that I

Quite.’ And Moses: ‘My sentence was, I fancy,

Clearly enough articulated. Let the miscreants

Be stoned to death.’ The leader: ‘With respect and deference,

I do not think that my people could at all

Possibly accept such a harsh, a disproportionate –

Forgive me. Sir.’ And Moses stood and said:

‘Can you or your people think of

An alternative punishment? More rebukes? Torture?

Turn them into living martyrs? Imprisonment?

We are all imprisoned until we reach the land.

Best be bold and have done with it. The law is the law,

One, indivisible. To kill another man

Merits death. To kill the Lord’s day,

The living breathing peace that belongs to the Lord,

Can that be accounted a lesser crime? The Lord God

Is thus blasphemed against. Blasphemy,

A sneer, a gob of spit in the face of God.

Let them be stoned to death.’ He said no more,

Returning to his rock seat and his problems,

But the tribal leader was aghast. That very day

The penalty was exacted – a wall-eyed thief,

A thief whose hair shone gold in the sun, transfixed

With twisted ropes to tree trunks, the crowd around

Murmuring, and soon doing more than murmur

When the muscles of the executioners

Glistened in the sunlight. They took, in an easy rhythm,

Rock after rock from the pile and hurled,

Hurled. The one died quickly, faceless, but the other

Lasted till there was not much of the human about him,

And then his head dropped to his shoulder. Not murmurs,

But yells of anger before the cave of Moses,

And stones thrown. The armed guard held steady.

Justice not murder to hell with your commandments

Break your stones again murderer your laws are

Nothing but murder. Grim, he came out. The stones flew.

He bled from his brow. The guard hit back with staves.

Many dispersed, yelling, but Dathan