The Wicked Spurs - On the Ash and Thunder Road

#darkcountry #country #gothicwestern

They swore the storm of war would pass me by...
But such tempests spare no wicked soul,
that rides beneath the sky...

The river bled red, at the breaking of morn.
Smoke curling slow, where the brave were torn.
I rode in silence, with my rifle worn.
No colors stitched, no pledge sworn.
But the ground beneath me shook real low,
Calling out my name, though I will not choose...
Gray nor Blue, you know...

The wind bore tidings, I dared not ignore.
A rebel cry tangled, with a Union roar.
And in that shadowed hour, when daylight cracked.
I knew no outlaw walks unmarked, when the nation’s bones are stacked.

On the Ash and Thunder Road.
Where brothers bend, beneath the weight they’re owed.
Where the rifle speaks, what hearts withhold.
And every mile unearths, the debts foretold.
On the Ash and Thunder Road.
No mortal flees, the tale that war hath wrote.

I crossed a field, where banners lay in shreds.
And crows kept vigil o’er, the unburied dead.
A dying captain reached forth his trembling hand.
And whispered, “Boy, ne’er trust the blood of any land.”
His breath waned thin, like a ghost set free.
Then drifted off, into the smoke ahead of me...

I kept my pace, though the timber shook,
As though the forest, grieved each life war took.
And the road before me, felt like judgment’s gate,
A path carved deep by the cries of fate.

On the Ash and Thunder Road.
Where truth lies cold, in the stories told.
Where the young meet death, and the old die by cold.
Where duty bends and the righteous fold.
On the Ash and Thunder Road.
No outlaw rides with a lighter load.

Some fight for hearth.
Some fight for pride.
Some chase ghosts, that shall never die.
But I fought fate, on a weary steed,
Hounded by a land, I did not lead.

On the Ash and Thunder Road.
Where every step, cuts deeper than the last.
Where war inscribes names, upon the grass.
And the fallen pray, the suffering pass.
On the Ash and Thunder Road.
I learned that no outlaw, outruns the wars he did not oath...