THE SURVEYOR

"Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set."

---Proverbs 22:28

He thrives on patterns,

    his marks and monuments

    transform a wilderness

    and by his carefully tagged

    and numbered squares,

    neat roads, correction lines

    and small cadastral lots

    he clothes in certainty,

    in geometrical designs,

    man's ancient rights.

He scans the skies,

    reading some far-off star

    by which he plots

    meridians and makes his maps,

    stitching a new-found world

    into a patchwork quilt,

    a net of metes and bounds,

    so lands may know their own

    and live in peace.

                                         -- DON W. THOMSON