
He who in his shadow saw his soul, fleeting
In a river, bestride the dawdling cloud,
As men were known to think, once
Upon a strident, earnest time—
And I who see my soul, and ours,
In the whole of what’s around,
Can I be headed else
Than where some noble Indian—
According to his code, comported
All his life in line
For fear some heathen god
Would strike him down—landed
Finally one day,
Years and years past brushing close
With death whose reach he always just outstripped,
One morning smelling fate about him,
Unquicked for one half-instant, heaven-blest,
And was by creeping viper bit
Who slid along beside his grassy mattress,
And contented then, breathless
Let his shadow vanish under rock?
- D.Marsteller
