|
~ 446 ~
Wounded, One Spur tried to rest
Hide from the gruelling sun
Blood from his shattered chest
Had fast begun to run
~ 447 ~
His faithful horse exhausted
Failed to raise his head
His whinny soft and friendly
Told One Spur, hope was shed
~ 448 ~
Alone there on the desert
Strength sapped by callous sun
One Spur with great sorrow
Raised his Enfield gun
~ 449 ~
The shot split the shimmering heatwaves
Echoed across the plains
Resounded through the Wadies
To the far off parched terrains
~ 450 ~
The magnificent echo of the Arrows call
Screamed its eternal sound
As there a man in solitude
Fell dead upon the ground
~ 451 ~
The breathless air in stillness,
In the dancing heat of day
Sparse trees all stood in solitude
Along the grassless way
~ 452 ~
Bowed prayer-like o'er the sleeping dead
Upon the lifeless sand
From where their souls from bodies fled
withered on the land
~ 453 ~
In those wasted grains of sand
Their souls again returned,
Ne'r to leave, nor had they left,
When life therein had burned
~ 454 ~
Seeped all love, all feeling seeped
Into the earths deep fire
As Souls unseen and hearts unseen
To some far off place retire
~ 455 ~
Left now is a fading memory
A small thought that time will fade
That whispers in the desert wind
Losing all in timeless shade
~ 456 ~
Life now lay in mystery
Unseen, by even memory
Lost from all times reality
Lost, gone to eternity
~ 457 ~
The Soldier who now stood alone
Turned from the tragic scene
In his eyes were bitter tears
Saddened by what he'd seen
~ 458 ~
He walked slowly to his waiting horse
And mounted in the day
Then quietly from the trails end
Poor Deacon rode away
~ 459 ~
And swallowed in the desert
Deacon rode alone
Astride his tiring whaler
That was thinning to the bone
~ 460 ~
There the desert sought him
And claimed his mind and soul
For when his horse had fallen
He wandered like a foal
~ 461 ~
All hope, was hopelessness
There all courage died
Strength reserved had used its strength,
Now useless to gain a stride
~ 462 ~
And death could not seem real,
For how could the living die?
"God there must be such as thee
Or this life is but a lie"
~ 463 ~
Now the sun, the burning sun
Has sunken from the sky
Across the silent arid plains
The nights great shadow lies
~ 464 ~
This darkness shrouding empty lives
That the wild and free have led
Hid the sorrow in the wind
For tall Deacon, he was dead.
THE END
|