Gettysburg

Fall in, I hear the cries

Behind your waking eyes

They’re calling, the fear it dies

And tells the sun to rise

Oh, tells the sun to rise

To rise, called by the skies to the line

To rise, moment to shine or resign

I look out, the sea of smoke

Feel the darkness come in waves

Eastern hills and eastern haze

I hear shouts, the smell that chokes

Splintered doorways, wintered graves

All that’s kneaded for the brave

Shall I close my eyes?

A shell, I close my eyes

My eyes, fought to align your mind

My eyes, caught from behind by the blind

Now I stand upon this old ground

The stones recall my stubborn sound

All the echoes of another round

Still call as if to say you’re found

Fight was won, the future still lost

Reduced to flashes in the frost

All I am and all I’ve come across

Is nothing set beside the cost

Now the days are long as you’re gone

The nights, forlorn as I was wrong

Trees still sway, the birds sing love songs

To mock my sorrow as I long

All these others wander without care

I’m caught, engaged in my despair

Tasked to seek, in empty summer air

A love that time can never spare