March Content Update: The Path of Care

Note: From now on, I'll be adding text transcripts to formerly image-only Patreon updates, so that they'll be more accessible to folks who have to rely on screen readers.

THE PATH OF CARE

I have seen them in the sanctuaries of stone,

mending cuts and bruises and broken limbs.

I have seen them work healing with naught but faith,

and ask to be paid only what might be afforded,

even if all that can be given is faith in return.

And all revere them as they walk past,

for they walk the path of care.

I have seen them in their great surgeries,

their tables strewn with brass and leather.

I have seen them restore the broken bodies,

with pin-point precision and iron magics,

and win them reputations as workers of miracles.

And all revere them as they walk past,

for they walk the path of care.

I have seen them on their sand-strewn courtyards,

as they carry the stricken from one world to another.

As they guide the dying into eternity,

and carry them into the burning sands,

to let the desert embrace them.

And all revere them as they walk past,

for they walk the path of care.

I have seen them walk the wild paths,

beyond where even the Gods do not dare tread.

Who bring the hope of the healer's light

up the most turbulent and frothy rill,

and along the longest and narrowest road.

And all revere them as they walk past,

for they walk the path of care.

I have seen them in the sea of canvas tents,

and marching in column behind the reed flutes.

As blades flash beneath the Sultana's banners,

to bestow life, rather than to steal it away,

and to cut the boundaries between decay and renewal.

And though some look askance as they walk past,

they walk the path of care.

I have seen them in the under-grown halls,

as they go surrounded by the dead.

With torch in hand, they care for those long gone,

to remind those left behind that one's memory

does not end with their death.

And though some look askance as they walk past, 

they walk the path of care.

I have seen them in their sea-smelling laboratories,

with great copper tables stained green with time.

With scalpel and probe, lens and spell,

they open up the bodies of the volunteer dead,

to better serve those who heal the living.

And although others look away as they walk past,

they too, walk the path of care.

And I have seen them pick over the fields of death,

with cloth over their mouths and tears in their eyes.

To do the things which all say must be done,

the things which when come the moment of necessity,

no others seem able to do.

And although others look away as they walk past,

they too, walk the path of care.