Kevin Desabrais
The Ragged Man
The soldier standing true and tallCome to heed the maiden's callAn answer to unspoken prayersLeaves a battle, finds her thereUp beyond the play of shadows On the kitchen wall there are stainsAn apparition of the moment Now become the ragged manBut dressed in tattered armorFitting like deciphered runesWaiting silent for the questionWhere're the healing, where're the woundsShe offers up a glass of wineBitter chamomile and thymeToast the water, wind, and fireThough the earth held her desireOut beyond the water's edgeAn hour shifts slowly into sandWords race forwardThe precipice leads the poet's handThe ragged man, refusing solaceLetras de cancionesTurns slowly to the eastAnd takes the silence deep withinThe still howling of the beastYou're breaking into song againI heard you whistle in the windFeet to tap, bugles callLeading summer into fallAnd out beyond the hedgerowsThe moon lies naked in the fieldsCasting broken shadows On the rusted wagon wheelsThe ragged man will pause,Pull his half sword from its sheatheAnd gently lay the broken blade In supplication at her feetStars wheel through their course againChart the fate of gods and menTopple kings and fools and knavesAs they go laughing to their gravesOut beyond the garden wallsNothing's settled but the dewThe ragged man will pause and shed a tear for me and youHe brings his right hand to his forehead,A farewell sad saluteA shoulder in confusion's crux,Stumbles onward, deaf and mute
From Letras Mania