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