The rugged hills that cradled mists all black
and silver 'neath a brilliant hunter's moon
a land so fair my empty heart goes back
from gray sundown to fleeting golden noon.

The wildwood's tender leaves so fresh and green
fair curtains that hid raging secret love
the one so fine and rare and one so mean
did stars despair to watch from up above?

Your broken heart mended at last, you grew
beyond this first ill-founded foolish fling.
I crawled in muck, you spread your wings and flew
from moonshot misty nights where crickets sing.

The flowers' scent and Luna's glow we killed
when we found first love's honey bittersweet.
Our fragile hopes and innocence we spilled
and something precious shattered at our feet.

My scarred and ragged soul still gives a twinge
when moonlight makes scrub hills a paradise
I gaze back from life's dry and wilted fringe
like Moses 'cross Jordan, with hungry eyes.