Bounty Paid

He rode up
With the early dawn
Two pistols by his side.

"Come out old man,
And pay the price."
To the window he had cried.

"This is the time
To face your fate
There is nowhere you can hide."

Slowly then
The doorway slid
And the guilty stepped outside.

His face was scarred
His eyes were dark
His hair was surely dyed.

"You call upon
The wrong man"
Came the feeble alibi.

"I was here at home,
With my wife and child
I promise I do not lie."

The rider paused
A second still
And considered the dice.

He sought to make
Sense of the face
That stared into his eyes.

As the sun rose up
Behind the mill
And shed its blinding light

A shot rang out
Gunpowder smells
Choked up the countryside

The scarred man
Stood in the doorway still
While the rider slowly died.

He walked up to
The bleeding man
And knelt down by his side.

He pulled aside
The two guns and said
"I'm sorry for my crime.

"There was no way
For you to live
And me to keep what's mine.

I know the day
I'm judged for this
There'll be no mercy to be had

So let them send
Ten thousand more
If it makes them just as glad."

The rider gave
His final breath
To have two words as his last

"Burn down"
He cried to the dark eyed man
Still clinging to the past.

The murderer
Picked the body up
By sundown it was lost.

While the two guns
Raised on a mantelpiece
Reminded of the cost.

A man who seeks
Another's blood
Should dig a pair of graves.

There is no hope
For vengeance when
Luck and fortune saves.