All Alone

Walking up a sandy draw- Out in the desert land... An oddity is what I saw, Have buried in the sand. “Saddlebags!” is what I thought, “Dried up, and nearly gone.” I wondered how they came to be, Here in the sage and stone. I dug them up, but underneath, I caught a glimpse of bone. And realized that it was, here, Some traveler died alone. Rotted cloth, a rusted gun, Among the grim remains. “He almost made it,” mocked the the wind, “His payback for his pains.” I peeled apart the rotten bags, And in my search I found- A journal wrapped in oilcloth, And it was leather bound. I opened it, began to turn, The pages I did bend- “Where to start?” I asked myself, Then started toward the end. “Phoenix, May, of eighty-one- Charley Wade, and me- And when we pick the Pima up, Our total will be three.” He wrote about the journey, Southeast, toward Mexico... He spoke of virgin silver... Of which, the three did know. Apaches did for Charley- Not far from Kitchen’s Well. Buried near a watershed, They left him where he fell... The Pima died of snakebite, The man was left alone... Yet still the silver beckoned, The fortune lured him on. “I broke my leg at sundown- And now my horse has run. If Apaches do not get me first, I just might eat my gun! “Thirsty!” was what he wrote next- “Ah, God, the sun is hot! And I keep seeing water- In places that it’s not! Buzzards keep a circling- I guess my race is run... A shame a Tennessean. Has to die here ‘neath this sun!” I left him as I found him, Half buried by the sand- And realized that men like him, Had founded our great land. The guts to saddle up and go, Where no one else has gone, And fortitude, if need be, To die there all alone.