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Rearguard

Rearguard
© 2005 George Reed

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

In shadowing embrace of bitter frozen pass,
Numbers were against us and time was running fast…
I stepped up to the sergeant. He thought I lost my mind.
I volunteered to be the one the rest left behind…

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

We marched for a king and promised him our best
We never saw the other army hidden in the west
Suddenly all was lost–the tide was turning fast.
We needed a volunteer to hold ‘em in the pass

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

I went to the place where but one can make his way,
Claymore at the ready to make the foeman pay.
Not long after echoes of my clan dimmed away
I hear the rushing footfalls of my own judgement day.

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

Thank God for the skill to help me hold the pass.
A cross and then a prayer to do what fate will ask.
Eighty men will get home to try another day
If I can but keep rearguard a while today

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

Send a word to my mother, send my brooch to my lass
Give our son the claymore if you find it in the pass.
Mark my fading with a stone for passers by to see
Save my name within a song and raise a cup to me

Someone has to step in, someone has to stay.
Someone has to rearguard so the rest can get away….

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