Lone Pine

They scheduled death for this morning’s last hoorah
Will plan for dwindled hopes, as fading stars
The dawn stares sadly, escape it stands to shun
Same sky, same story to stand for years to come

No eye will meet another for the while
In anxious mouths the taste of bitter bile
While rising sun will warm us to our bone
We know a rising gun shall send us home

So finally one boy will still pretend
That a day like this can have a welcome end
We can talk and laugh and wonder one more time
Why do these things seem like such a crime?

And now it comes for us to stop our play
To stand at the face of death and pray
But whether God has heard us, stands to test
Now we, for king and country, give our best

At call from puppet’s mouths we take our place
The time has passed for us to plead our case
And when the whistle blows, that’s the end
And demons, waited cruelly, now descend

Now we’ve reached the end of bitter day
We’ve only left our flesh for slow decay
We now will roam in places far from here
Where no longer will my soul be left in fear