From Swallows’ In the Shadow of the Seven Stars
Ten Miles Down
About Ten Miles Down
DATE: Monday, May 18, 1891
LOCATION: Buffalo Gap, South Dakota
SCENE: After a cross-continent trip by rail, the witness arrives in Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, the location of a recent massacre of fifty members of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Driven to this remote location by a host of the dead wishing to be returned to their ancestral home, he embarks on a terror-filled journey to Pine Ridge with instructions and provisions from the townspeople who are not willing to travel with him into Sioux territory because of the recent unrest.
Ten miles
Beyond the last homestead
Ten miles down
Where the bulrush grows
And the blackbirds nest
Strange lights pulsing
Dark things prowling
As the pale lamps flicker
Ten miles down
You’ll find the river bends
Ten miles down
Swift waters flow
Past a great oak stand
Old limbs withered
Dead eyes watching
As the gnarled hands twist and turn
Something’s calling me
Away from this life
The dead have followed me
Miles and miles from home
I’ll wait all night
‘Til the spirits pass
Stand watch ‘til the light
Beats the shadows back
Rise high sun fire
Bright light
Push these voices out of my head
Something’s calling me
Away from this life
The dead have followed me
Miles and miles from home
Something’s calling me
Away from this life
The host that’s watching me
Wants to swallow me up whole
© 2013 Crandall
Performers:
Aaron Kerr – Bass
Brett Hansen – Electric Guitars
Jeff Crandall – Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Organ
Justin DeLeon – Drums