Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless: For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you. --Proverbs 23:10-11
In fatherless fields, men struggle for their reasonIf winnowed there by birth or circumstance
To dwell among the chaff a barren season
Perhaps to die, perhaps to kill a man.
Each soul must learn patience in fatherless fields:in its words, no cause of action to belie;
in demeanor, no blunted ax to grind,
no apostasy from the wonted God
Who serves every just cause in its due time.
The children learn to abide the Other
a-snore in Mother's bed, when Father's gone
to yawning Sheol. Holy emoluments
assure everything, yet provide for nothing,
save that Abu's spirit may be looking on.
God forbids replacement of the ancient stones
ever-standing, to mark each tribal domain,
but governs a covenant lost to the wind,
a propriety stricken, useless as chaff
when fields fall to gods of a different name.
In such epochs, widows of the vanquished
beget silent, brooding generations
whose God crowns the One untroubled by reason;
and glories each bramble field over-thorned
to nettle those in wrongful possession.
Such ire will reign for many seasons,
burning the wrongful race back behind borders,
restoring the promised lands back to the clans.
Until mindless men instinctively forget
Ashes made a beast of their powerlessness.