The watches of the day and night
Are kept by those who still preserve
The vigilance required of us
To brace; to steel ourselves, and hold our nerve —
The peril we will need to fight
We must be warned of in advance –
Ignoring the superfluous
We face: we must maintain a ready stance —
For out there, on the prairie gold,
The windswept fields lie silent still:
Just waiting for us to grow old
And stop —
and lose the strength to live
the will —
