38 Nooses

38 Nooses
©Dan Sullivan 2014

38 Nooses swinging in the wind
The hangman checks his watch again
A few clouds drifting across the sky
And 38 Dakotas  waiting to die

Soldiers torn  by lead and steel
Ghosts departing  the battlefield
Into the smoke they disappear
Just as if they were never here

Husbands, wives, sons and daughters
Some were spared and some were slaughtered
The news spread like a prarie fire
Riding east on the telegraph wire

The thunder dies and all is still
Except for the creaking of the wheels
As ambulance wagons carry away
Ten thousand dead Blue and Grey

Justice  mixed in the blood of revenge
Weighed on the scale against the dead
The prarieland  is vast and cold
No one  knows the secrets it holds

Can you feel that December wind
It’s grey as shame and cold as sin
From the Land of Lakes the cold wind blows
All the way to Cashtown Road

38 Nooses swinging in the wind
The hangman checks his watch again
In the distance a coyote calls
And suddenly the  trap doors  fall