- Look Away
-
- The old man stared hard at the
ground 'neath his feet
- his eyes full with years of
success and defeat.
-
- When he finally looked up, didn't
say a word
- just mounted his pony, light as a
bird.
-
- He didn't look back at his life,
now behind him
- just forward to what lay ahead of
his hat brim.
-
- The roll of his ride was familiar
and smooth
- but the pain in his heart no one
could remove
-
- and as the horse took him to the
top of a hill
- he stopped to look back at his
place, with a chill.
-
- It weren't much to most folks,
just a small workin' ranch
- but for years he'd worked there,
cause it was his chance
-
- to escape from the world that had
taken a son
- when he had come west with his
wife and a gun.
-
- It was fever, they said, that just
wouldn't break
- but it caused his wife a terminal
ache
-
- and though she gave birth to three
more, he knew
- that somehow that day they surely
would rue.
-
- And so she took sick, after long
years of toil.
- When she left, his life blew away,
like top soil.
-
- So nothing meant much out in this
old place
- just cold wind here that blew away
every trace
-
- except for the future that he had
to face
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