Somewhere in the desert lies a lonely man

the rattling of snakes and the whispering sand

his only escape from the heat,

that shakes his shooting hand.

 

Death is forever by his side,

as grizzled as a companion can be

with no end to the slaughter

that came at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

 

The Gunslinger, once the hero in this game,

now kills for money and peace in his brain,

his mind to savagery,

when he thinks of the men he has slain.

 

Of the warrior, no longer

Death is his stranger, undoing all that was just,

the gunslinger in the shadows,

making breathing men eat dust.

 

Somewhere in the desert

lays a lonely man tonight,

his guitar battered, his pistol clean

and Death within his sight.

 

One day the pistol

will draw a moment too late,

till that day he rides the desert

in search of violent fate.

 

Here ends the lesson

of the gunslinger, the man who will kill for Death

keeping looking behind your back my son,

keep a mind on that desert breath.

 

Inspired by the song Rest In Place by John Chatterton.

Ian D. Hall 2016