Appomattox Autumn

Appomattox Autumn

Burnished hues of red and golden splendor
Color the winding path through the Blue Ridge
Confederate battlefields remembered
War's end at Appomattox surrender

Lush green fields alive with booming cannons
Behold victory's glorious garden
Brother against brother, sorrow of man
So many fallen, try to understand

Follow tradition, this pumpkin to light
October's falling leaves find Virginia
Soldiers' ghosts admonish through the long night
Learn lessons, love each other, do what's right

Or doomed to travel dark roads, die is cast
Tears, grief and mourning, oh what was it for?
Time hurries by, new century at last
Condemned to repeat careless ways of the past