Originally published in Points West magazine
Fall 2016
To My Winchester
By Captain Jack Crawford
Sweetheart of mine:
For years thy loyalty has proven true
As is the steel of which thou art created;
There are no fickle vanities in you.
Thy constancy might well be emulated
By beauteous sweetheart of a softer mold,
Whose eyes gleam love on every new adorer
Who bends the pliant knee to god of gold,
And blesses every knight who bows before her
At Cupid’s shrine.
My pretty pard,
As loyal helpmate thou hast ever stood
Facing with me the dangers placed before us,
Faithful ‘mid trying scenes of war and blood
As when the skies of peace shone clearly o’er us.
‘Mid all the trying hours of olden days,
When peril threatened, thou hast never failed me—
Loyal wert thou in many deadly frays,
When painted foemen wickedly assailed me
And pressed me hard.
Thou are not sweet
In disposition unto all, my dear;
To some thou art most spiteful in thy anger—
Many have quailed in abject fright to hear
Thy ringing tones in war’s resounding clangor.
Although thy face may gleam with polished smiles
Thou art a spitfire when the scene is fitting,
And gone are all thy sweet coquettish wiles
When foes with mine their battle powers are pitting
In war’s mad heat.
I love thee, dear,
And love of loyal man was never placed
Upon a more deserving, true companion.
In western wanderings, when peril faced
Our daily life, on plain, in gloomy canyon,
My trust in thee has never been betrayed,
True as thy tempered steel I’ve always found thee,
In scenes of danger I was not afraid
Though savage foemen lurked in rocks around me
For thou wert near.
Come, dear one, fling
Thy moody silence off, and lift thy voice
In song as in the days now gone forever,
For all the dangers past let us rejoice,
I’ll beat the time with thy quick-acting lever.
Sing in thy wildest tones, let not a note
Be soft as note from tender woman;
Sing as thou didst when from thy fiery throat
We hurled defiance at a foe inhuman,
Sing, sweetheart, sing.
— MS322.08.05.16
Who is Captain Jack Crawford? Find out here.
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