Collected Poems by Anthony Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) 📕

to flight. ‘Next time,’ Koreh said,

‘It will not be a little matter of a night raid.’

Nor was it. When, in strengthening light,

The Israelites, with goods and flocks and cattle,

Were ready at the mountain foot for the march,

Hidden among boulders on a high slope Moses stood,

With Aaron and Koreh, watching. He watched and saw,

In dust, the entire tribe of the Amalekites

Approaching in the distance. He raised his staff.

Joshua and his warriors, on a lower slope,

Hidden among rocks, armed with rocks, saw the sign.

The raiders came nearer, bold, seeing only

Tired wanderer and cattle and flocks,

And greed quickened their pace towards the prey.

So Joshua signalled and shocked them with a quick fire

Of arrows, till all the arrows were spent.

Then came the hurling of stones, stone after stone

After stone, for there was no shortage of rock.

They had not expected this, the Amalekites:

Howling, they turned tail, in spite of the

Howls of the leaders, their retreat thickening and growing.

And now was the turn of the hidden reserve,

Lurking behind the non-combatant Israelites,

Rushing on the rear, busy with rocks and daggers,

Picking up daggers. Carnage, delectable spoils

Of swords and spears, breastplates even, helmets,

For the Amalekites were a warlike people.

So as the Israelites trudged on their way,

There was a breastplate on Joshua, and a helmet,

And a dagger in a sheath – the general Joshua,

Close to Moses, and Aaron some way behind,

The office of Aaron somewhat less clear than it had been.

They trudged towards Midian, and the heart of Moses

Beat painfully as he said to himself: ‘Thick and strong

It beats, the desert blood. In the women,

As much as in the men. What law prevents her

Yielding to some young red mouth of Midian,

Black-bearded, a storm in the pulse? And, if she has waited,

Believing me still to be among the living,

There begins the double burden – that of a man

With two families, two.’ There it was, then,

At least, old territory, loved, fateful –

The solitary tree on the hill, the sacred mountain,

The wells of Midian and, yes, a group waiting,

Waving. Moses ceased to be a leader,

Breaking with an unwonted speed from the van of the progress,

Becoming the husband and father. Joshua smiled,

The Israelites waited in wonder. And so – Zipporah,

Ghershom grown, Jethro old, the sisters

(Some married, one dead), embraces, tears,

And embraces and tears in the tent of Zipporah

In the following dawn, Moses saying: ‘My love,

It will take time for me. To be again what I was.’

And she: ‘You have grown thin. You have lacked

Too long the roasted firstlings and the broths

Of herbs and mutton I cooked for you. Also the love.

You are very thin.’ – ‘Also old? Also very old?’ –

‘I did not,’ she smiled, ‘say that. But you need time

And rest to make those eyes lose their fierceness,

Those hard lines round your lips melt to tenderness.’

So they embraced, but a voice outside called: ‘Moses!’

And Moses wearily smiled: ‘So it will always be.

Israel lying in bed between us.’ He donned his robe

And left the tent to hear news of fighting.

‘Reuben and Judah?’ he said. ‘Impossible.’

‘All too possible,’ Joshua said. ‘Tribal war.

It was some matter of a woman.’ Bitterly, Moses:

‘A woman. A woman of Reuben and a man of Judah.

Is that the story?’ Joshua said: ‘A man of Reuben,

Single, and a married woman of Judah.’ –

‘So,’ said Moses, ‘they’ve developed a taste for war.’ –

‘We shall all’, said Joshua, ‘need to develop that taste.’ –

‘But.’ Moses cried: ‘this is not a matter

Of repelling invaders. It is brother against brother.

Do not the followers yet see that we must be one,

One, one, not a loose parcel of tribes?’

Joshua said: ‘To be truthful, the possession of weapons

Drove to the use of weapons.’ – ‘It is always so’,

Sighed Moses. ‘You must construct an armoury.

You must keep our weapons clean and locked away.

If we are to fight with nations – then, so be it.

But we are not to make war amongst ourselves.

How many are dead? – ‘Only one dead,’ said Joshua.

‘A very small war. Caleb and I soon stopped it.’ –

‘Brother killed brother’, sighed Moses. ‘Cain and Abel

Back to life, or death. And was the man… ?’

‘The man,’ Joshua said, ‘was the single

Man of Reuben, no longer able to love the

Married woman of Judah.’ So they walked through the camp

And saw the adulterer, pitifully broken and rent,

Lying on the ground, and assembly fearful

As Moses spoke: ‘This is no war but murder.

The law says that you shall not kill, but we

Make an exception to the law. For if the enemy

Seeks to kill you, then you may justly,

And out of the need of nature, kill him first,

If you can. But what is your enemy?

He is someone remote, of strange tongue, of evil intention.

You will meet many such enemies, believe me,

Before you cross to the land of the Lord’s promise,

And even thereafter there will be enemies enough.

But we are one, of common custom and speech,

And – note this, note it well – chosen together,

As one people, as one family, for the special favour

And the special chastening of the Lord our God.

Therefore I say this to you: that the deed

That was done was no brave deed of warfare

But a foul act of murder. And if there was a murder,

There must of necessity be one accused of murder.

Let him come forward.’ There was silence for a space,

And eyes turned to the ground, and the eyes of Moses

Saw that dead man as he had once been, alive,

Embracing lustily, and remembered his own words,

Gentle, warning, in vain. Sly, shamed eyes

Fixed on one young man, who now came boldly,

And Moses said, gently enough: ‘What have you to say?’ –

‘I acted under order,’ the youth said.

‘We were ordered to attack the enemy.’

Moses said: ‘There was no enemy.

A man killed a man and that is murder.

And what is the punishment for murder?

Let us hear from the heads of the tribes concerned.’

These came forward, doubtful, and Moses asked again:

‘What is the punishment for murder?’ The head of Judah

Said, full of the old way: ‘The washing out of

Blood by compensation. Let the young man

Or his parents make good the loss of

An able-bodied member of our tribe.

Let us then have a warrior or