Fires over the land Rise higher, hotter, merrier
Their light reflections are a-dance, hop, skip, clap, and away
But now fate and time Have found steeds to carry them
And thus a-gallop, bullets past
And the world shook with fever fast
From the gallop of this day.

The stray bullets are mean Though stupid, foolish, knowing not,
While we went racing off And they would fly behind.
The horses would lose shoes And the steel horseshoes, burning hot
Flew in the dust, bringing luck To those who’ll chance to find.

Our thoughts and hair are both tangled whirls
And slippery like eels, on the run, are the reins
But the wind blew and straightened out our curls
And straightened out the wrinkles on our brains.

It is not flight from fire, Nor is it fear of the chase
But time has galloped up And now Fortune has smiled
The riders have crossed sabres With the Sun’s downward-blazing rays -
On Pegasus-back poets ride;
The fires faded, then they died
But the race heated up the while.

The world has never yet seen such an allure!
Hoofs pounded out the beat, Tolled the carillon bell,
And the blind foolish bullet, Forged with blood to make it sure,
Regained its sight and wisdom too, And hit its targets well.

Who knows who’ll dance wilder on the stones?
No one can be late in this race, but who knows who’ll be fast?
And the wind blew the flesh clean off our bones
And our skeletons rejoiced, cool at last.

For the first time, Time surges straight and not in circles round
Luck is ahead, we know, and the sick shall all be healed
Promises of tomorrow Have a drunk and bitter sound...
But bright to race and see a foe
And joy to see a friend also -
Fate flies in the field!

Death has been too trusting, and now she is deceived
She hesitates, forgetting to swing her scythe clean through.
Bullets can’t catch us now, and they fall back unrelieved -
Will we now wash our faces not with blood, but with the dew?

The wind’s song is now sadder and lower.
Time’s wounded with a piercing wound, Fate was unlucky too.
Horses and winds And bodies and souls
Themselves carried the slain out and through.