Brian Laidlaw

New Album "THIS ASTER" out this winter

Two Sentinels

 

At the top of the hill

Two sentinels stood

Gathering wood

To lay on their fire

 

When supper was done

They lay on their pallets

And dreamed of a palace

Where they ranked higher

 

Their post was remote

And the work was thankless

Their tired old blankets

Were thinner than gingham

 

When winter crept in

It beat their endurance

They turned into turrets

Overlooking that kingdom

 

And they wish you well

Anyway, anyway

But they could get well

Any day, any day

 

The night that they froze

They’d been back to back

Awaiting attack

The same way god did

 

In the wide frontier

The space made them nervous

They enlisted for service

And the country praised them

 

They’d volunteered

When the country was wild

Heroes reviled

And villains applauded

 

They stood for a year

They stood for a decade

They watched the good light fade

From the land that raised them

 

 

And they wish you well

Anyway, anyway

But they could get well

Any day, any day

 

The one facing west

Said humans are peons

I’ve been here for eons

So I know what life is

 

The one facing east

Said look where you stand, rock

They may be landlocked

But you are lifeless

 

The one facing west

Said the sun wanes palely

People watched die daily

And yet it amazed them

 

The one facing east

Said I await the rebirthing

Of every earthling

And the land that raised them

 

And they wish you well

Anyway, anyway

But they could get well

Any day, any day