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And he knows that he dreams
this story out of wandering
out of night and the long singing he kept
away from the People
from Goldmoon from the Chieftain
from Old Man himself,
the weaver of blood,
a dream that he cannot remember
where the hawk scuttles over the ground,
dragging its wing like a trophy, a kill,
surrendered wind in its eyes.
And as he approaches,
the leopard, the hawk
vanish like water,
reflections of moon over moon
at the heart of the place of the Staff.
He follows each vanishing,
awaiting the snares of the moon,
and OLD MAN, he whispers, OLD MAN,
I AM LEARNING THIS MAPLESS COUNTRY.
But the wanderer travels
through hunger's ambush,
through the thirst of the country
that drives away knowing and knowledge,
and the words of the Old Man
translate the country behind him
but the country before him
is rumors of water,
is crystal arising
distorted by moonlight,
by thought and the absence of thought,
and water arises
like blue crystal before him.
THIS TIME THE DREAMING IS OVER, he thinks,
AND THIS TIME AND THIS TIME
but the water escapes him
bearing the moons
in its depths like memories,
like the speculations of gods,
until the water is standing before him
and down in the water he sees
himself looking upwards,
the knotted moons at his shoulders,
and kneeling to drink he drinks too long,
for out of the water his arms are rising,
terrible, cold as the wind,
and drawing him downward
to moons and to darkness
to peace past remembering,
peace that whispers
JOIN ME MY BROTHER MY DOUBLE
over his vanishing face,
and the words of the Wanderer
returning, drawing him upwards,
the air in the words
sustaining him after belief
falls to the floors
of the waters that never were,
for somewhere the Old Man is saying,
is saying BELIEF IS A FACET OF CRYSTAL
THAT TURNING, CATCHES THE LIGHT
AND BENDS IT TO SHAPES AND MIRAGES,
BENDS IT TO FOXFIRE
THAT LIES AT THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL,
WHERE NOTHING LIES BUT THE LIGHT
THAT IS DAMAGED AND BROKEN
BEYOND THOSE THINGS
YOU REMEMBER, MY SON, YOU REMEMBER,
and Riverwind, doused and redeemed
by the words, by the saving air,
is saying, OLD MAN, I HAVE PASSED THIS, TOO,
I AM LEARNING THIS MAPLESS COUNTRY
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