These Three

Those Three

They came once a year, Those three. The secrets of my hidden canyon were their treasured prize. I raised my battlements and fought For naught.

They swam every pool, Those three. Through the moss-green ribbons, depth unknown and stinging cold, They sought a slit of sunlit sky, To dry.

Striving for the end Of me, To tenuous cliffs of talus, to walls of shale they clung, While boulders struck below the boom Of doom!

Hearts of conquerors, Those three! Standing in my storm-born chimney, viewing their conquest. Back into the centuries of time They climb.

So I coveted Those three. I protected and held fast their footprints in the sandTo show them none had come that way Since they This they do deserve Of me: To take with them a secret peace throughout a tortured land, And know they've trad on virgin sod Near God!