<p>A gentle sun is drifting down </p><p>Through ivory clouds and mellow sky. </p><p>Its hazy beams through emerald leaves </p><p>Are gleaming in an open eye.</p><p>An eye that looks into an eye,</p><p>Blackened, starless, still, and dead.</p><p>Emerging from its darkened void</p><p>A deathly bullet armed with dread.</p><p>He also sees the Eyes unseen,</p><p>Their even look that twinkles yet</p><p>And says in sapphire, fire and song,</p><p>“Beyond the river, there is rest.”</p><p>The silence shatters like a glass,</p><p>And fragile dust returns to dust.</p><p>Yet still the soldier looks beyond</p><p>And clearly sees with eyes of trust</p><p>A tree that grows by riverbanks,</p><p>And living streams that lap the sod</p><p>And soften mossy beds of sleep,</p><p>Awaiting weary sons of God.</p><p>Above the hills a singing lark</p><p>Is flying in a sunset sky.</p><p>The words that whisper paradise:</p><p>“After death, you will not die.”</p>