Cross Roads

FROM PARIS TO CHATEAU THIERRY

     The road winds out its weary way,
        Where fields are torn with sorrow;
     It is a road of yesterday,
        That dreams no fair tomorrow.

     It is silent, saddened road,
        A lonely road to follow;
     For in its dust red rivers flowed,
        And now, from every hollow,
     The crows rise up in sullen flight
        The crows that, blackly flying
     Against the skyline, speak of night,
        And bitterness, and dying.

     It is a road that creeps around
        Farmhouses that lie broken;
     That pauses at each shallow mound,
        At every blood-stained token.
     A helmet by the way one sees;
        A pistol, bent and rusty;
     And hung between two shattered trees,
        A coat mildewed and musty.
     It is a sad, forgotten road,
        But oh, it tells the story
     Of youth that bore another's load
        Without a thought of glory!
     For every tattered homestead cries
        Of vengeance that descended;
     And memory that never dies,
        From hearts that stay unmended!

     The road winds out its weary way,
        A lonely way to follow;
     And crows rise black against the day
        From every tree and hollow.