I'll never forget that frame-up, you bet; them caverns of sunset agleam;
Them still peaks aglow, them shadders below,
an' the lake like a petrified dream;
The teepees that stood by the edge of the wood;
the evenin' star blinkin' alone;
The peace an' the rest, an' final an' best, the music of Ed's grammyfone.
Then sudden an' clear there rang on my ear a song mighty simple an' old;
Heart-hungry an' high it thrilled to the sky,
all about "silver threads in the gold".
'Twas tender to tears, an' it brung back the years,
the mem'ries that hallow an' yearn;
'Twas home-love an' joy, 'twas the thought of my boy . . .
an' right there I vowed I'd return.
Big Four-finger Jack was right at my back, an' I saw with a kind o' surprise,
He gazed at the lake with a heartful of ache,
an' the tears irrigated his eyes.
An' sez he: "Cuss me, pard! but that there hits me hard;
I've a mother does nuthin' but wait.
She's turned eighty-three, an' she's only got me,
an' I'm scared it'll soon be too late."
* * * * *
On Fond-du-lac's shore I'm hearin' once more
that blessed old grammyfone play.
The summer's all gone, an' I'm still livin' on
in the same old haphazardous way.
Oh, I cut out the booze, an' with muscles an' thews
I corralled all the coin to go back;
But it wasn't to be: he'd a mother, you see,
so I -- SLIPPED IT TO FOUR-FINGER JACK.
The Land of Beyond
Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond,
That dreams at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls: O ye the yoke galls,
And ye of the trail overfond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle and track,
Let's go to the Land of Beyond!
Have ever you stood where the silences brood,
And vast the horizons begin,
At the dawn of the day to behold far away
The goal you would strive for and win?
Yet ah! in the night when you gain to the height,
With the vast pool of heaven star-spawned,
Afar and agleam, like a valley of dream,
Still mocks you a Land of Beyond.
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