The Run (revised, pared down)

Sestina: 39 line poem; 6 stanzas -- each 6 lines, and a final tercet. Each line of each stanza ends in the same six words.

1 2 3 4 5 6 - End words of lines in first sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 - End words of lines in second sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 - End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 - End words of lines in fourth sestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 - End words of lines in fifth sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 - End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(2 5) (4 3) (6 1) - Middle and end words of lines in tercet


Eyes on the desert sun, he knows he must go;
Yet, into the horizon's concert he yearns to run.
Disconcerting notions burn, searing for a second.
Chance? Fate? Which path should he decide to take?
This flurry of notions he can not stand.
He hurries his steed to where camp is set.

His men are shrouded in shadow; the sun has set.
These leathered boys fret his order, be it stay or go.
Nearby saltbrush and greasewood form a stand,
Guarding in thick knots, atop a narrow run.
Through this run he trots, a final look to take.
His mind is made, he motions for his second.

His plot relayed, the lieutenant nods his second.
They will ambush, the trap by nature set.
Here they shall vie and die, or victory take.
With hastened pace to their men they go.
"Ready yourselves, boys. For we will not run!
With tomorrow's sun we make our stand."

Proud and resolute, the young men stand
in full salute before the Captain and his second.
Place and time have ended their unfortunate run.
In tomorrow's embrace, when the sun has set,
On blood-gold cliffs, they'll have had their go;
Should this final order they agree to take.

Through silence they accept; responsibility they take.
Weighing heavily upon them, the morrow's stand,
the company's resolve is touch and go.
Belying hours, the sun supplants her second.
For the end, or a beginning, the men are set.
Anxiously they survey the canyon's run.

O'er sun-baked stone, blood will surely run,
In this too familiar scene. 'Tis here, my leave I take.
And, of it? Will they succeed? My mind is not set.
One way or another, men will fall; men will stand.
But ask first the reason, and the outcome second.
For 'tis better to know the why, than the way soldiers go.

From what should you run? For what should you stand?
Please, dear reader, take but just a second --
ponder the questions I have set, before you decide to go.