The register kept ticking
As it clocked down to the doom
And we huddled all together
In the corner of the room
There came a flash of innocence
That pierced the shadow'd gloom
And lit the hole where one had stood
And vanished to the tomb.
A voice like thunder echoed
And I half-heard what it said.
"You can't protect the fallen!"
Still whispers in my head
Like a half-remembered promise
Or the half-forgotten dead
Or the distant storms of summer
Wistful tears of clouds unshed.