Poems (Carmichael)/Only One
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ONLY ONE.
Only one! Yet one may be Sometimes welcome, where Valor needs to strike one blow, Faith to breathe one prayer. Yet it is not much, I know, When the work is done; Standing high or standing low, 'Twill be only one.
Only one! When some must die For the weal of all, Matters it where life's last sigh Breaks its earthly thrall? To the length of mortal breath Though a life be spun, Freezing on the lip of death, 'Twill be only one.
Only one! Yet one may be Something more than naught; One whose life intensity Breathed in deed and thought. Many stars flash on the night When their race is run, Seek the morrow's source of light, Twill be only one.