even though you are bound to your land
as the comet is wound around its orbit

And of course if you drain the marshes between mountains
and lug lead from the mines at Yen
and float it on scows to the south
the river is the law

And then, too, if your door
feathers itself in fire,
if the wing of the flame bird makrs your passage
and your wicker threshold is for burning
law is the river

Law may be the measure
for measure is the first
renewing and furthering
the heat and sweat of the job
such, surely, has been the law

and a man standing
straight and unblinking in his rank
may well be the lance shaft of the law