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

heard drums and horns and shouts,

And at each other, dismayed. Be of good courage,

So he had said. Much good would good courage do them,

Strong-limbed armies barring the way to Canaan

Of a people weak and weaponless, a people now

Cursing Moses: Worker of miracles, work

A proper miracle, give us proper food,

Or at least let us slaughter some of the sheep and kine

That we may fill our bellies with meat. He cried:

‘Is there no end to your complaining?

Is not the Lord God looking after your needs

Have I not told you till my very teeth

Are shaped like the letters of the words, that we are

Here but for a space? The antechamber of your inheritance,

I call it that, and soon the doors will open

On Canaan, where you will feed fully of its richness,

Be clothed in suet like the kidney of the ox?

I warn you now – if any of you shall seek

To eat flesh meat against my will and the will

Of the Lord your God, it shall be accounted a curse.’

And then the lifting of rocks and pebbles began,

The regular stoning of Moses who, angrily,

Shouted: ‘Fools, can you not understand?

We have no Egyptian gold or silver now.

We have only our flocks and cattle – the wealth

We take with us to Canaan. If we start killing –

Even a ram, even a bullock – all too soon

We shall have nothing.’ But still they hurled their stones

Till the troops hit back, and then they hurled only curses.

That evening, in proper furtiveness, a ewe was slain,

Some said by Dathan: Dathan was certainly one

Of the greasy tearers and munchers about a fire

Spitting with fat in the small hours. When arrest was made,

It was Dathan who smiled: ‘Very well, do your worst.

At least our bellies sing and roll with meat.

Would you gentlemen of the law care for a kidney

Or a hunk of haunch?’ Moses, sitting in judgement,

Sighed, said: ‘I believe that some of you

Would eat your own mothers.’ Dawn was coming up.

‘Meat meat – is there no other thought in your heads?

The gravity of the crime must be matched by – O Lord help me –

Must I go down in their annals as the hard man,

Moses the cruel?’ Dawn mounted, higher. He heard,

Or thought he heard, jubilant noises from the sun,

And then he turned and, striding through the dew,

Twelve men seemed to be singing. Aaron said:

‘The punishment – what is the punishment?’

And Moses said: ‘Not now, Aaron. Let us not talk of

Punishments now. See, they return, all twelve,

Singing and bearing poles, and on those poles – ’

Soon they could see jostling pomegranates,

Figs ready to burst with sweetness, grapes,

All tied with vine-ropes to poles borne on shoulders,

The poles sagging midway with the weight,

And the cheerful faces of the spies. ‘You see,’ Moses said

To his people, whose eyes were eating the promise

Of sugared juice in the distance, ‘that land, as we were told,

Is flowing with milk and honey, at least with fruit,

You wretched grumbling ingrates.’ Some ran out,

Not listening, to greet the approaching twelve, cheering,

And soon they were approaching with them, munching,

Dripping with juice. It was Shammua spoke first:

‘We entered the land, Moses, as you instructed,

And it bursts with richness. These grapes and figs and pomegranates

We gathered by a brook that we call Eshcol.’ –

‘Well-named, Eshcol,’ Moses smiled. ‘A grape-cluster.

So we have planted at least one name of our own

In the land of Canaan. See, you foolish children,

The wealth of that land. And that land is ours.’ –

‘The land is not ours,’ Shammua said. ‘We saw the people.

They dwell in walled cities and are warlike.’ –

‘Giants,’ Shaphat said, ‘the children of Anak.

We saw them. Hittites, Jebusites – who were the others?’

Igal said: ‘Amorites, the mountain people.

And by the sea the Canaanites. It is not ours,

That land. We could not possibly prevail.’ –

‘True,’ Shaphat said. ‘We have not the numbers.

We have not the weapons.’ Caleb spoke up at last

To cry that this was foolish and feeble talk.

‘We are strong enough. We can strike now. Must strike now.’

Moses turned to Joshua: ‘What do you say?’

And Joshua said: ‘I am of Caleb’s mind.

We can do it. We have certain advantages.

They do not know our numbers. We can strike from the mountains.’ –

‘And what’ asked Moses of the others, ‘say the rest of you?’

At once a protesting babble: There is no comparison

As to strength we saw them on parade

Huge armies we lack the power we lack the training

The weapons. But Caleb cried aloud: ‘It is

Strength of purpose you lack.’ Shaphat said:

‘Look, we have been through all that land, a land

That would swallow us as a toad swallows a gnat.

The sons of Arak are giants. Compared to them,

We are as grasshoppers are to us.’ Then Dathan,

With whom Abiram stood, Abiram, a man

Who had suffered but said little, also Koreh,

Koreh, that strong upholder of the law,

Spoke in no loud voice, not at first. He said:

‘Listen to me, Moses. We have borne much trouble

With hardly a murmur.’ Moses smiled at that.

‘We were given a promise, and that was that we were to

Walk into this land of yours – without trouble,

For we have not had enough and more than enough

Of that? I say this now to you and think I say it

On behalf of all: I would to God

We had died in the land of Egypt. I would to God

We had died in the wilderness. Why, tell us why,

We have been brought towards this land to fall by the sword,

To see our wives and children cut to pieces.

What strong plan does this God of yours have in mind?’

Abiram spoke. ‘I vote we choose a new captain –

One who will better consult the people’s interests –

One who will lead us back to Egypt.’ And he

Looked at Dathan, who looked modestly

Down at the ground. Moses spoke now to Koreh:

‘You, sir, were the rigorous upholder

Of God’s law. Do you then join this new party?’

Koreh, embarrassed, said: ‘I have to confess that –

Well, my confidence in your leadership (with respect)

Has long been wavering. I am of the people,

For the people. The people with me must come first,

And if the law turn sour and if the