The Men Who Sleep With Danger
The men who camp with Danger
Are mostly quiet men:
And one may use a rifle,
And one may use a pen,
And one may strap a camera
In deserts to his bike;
But men who sleep with Danger
Are pretty much alike.
To men in places pleasant
Or in the barren West
Theres Danger ever present
A half unheeded guest.
But , thoughtful for the stranger,
The timid or the weak
The men who camp with Danger
Keep watch but do not speak.
The men who go with Danger
Are mostly dreamy-eyed
Upon the swooping focsle.
Or by the camp-fire side,
And when they sit in darkness,
To show us where they are:
The glowing of a pipe-bowl
And often a cigar
The men who camp with Danger
Have quiet humour too,
And songs that youve forgotten,
And real good yarns for you.
Theres little you can tell them
Of yourself or your own
That men whove lived with Danger
Have never felt or known.
The men who sleep with Danger
Sleep soundly while they may,
But always wake at midnight
Or just before the day.
A something in the darkness
That shudders at the dawn
A side-mate softly wakened,
A rifle swiftly drawn.
The men who sail with Danger
As actors are ideal:
They lightly laugh to fool you
When Dangers very real.
The men who sail with Danger
A wondrous insight have:
They know if you are timid,
They know if you are brave.
The stewards set the tables
With careless, practised care,
And take accustomed comforts
To sea-sick cabins there.
They knock at doors of state-rooms
With broth and tea and toast,
While well they know, its touch and go,
And death sits on the coast.
The man who lives with Danger
Has knowledge all his own;
The instinct of a woman,
Of men who fight alone.
He learns from peace and comfort,
He learns from care and strife;
Unwittingly from all things
And from his native wife.
The men who live with Danger
See sermons in a log;
They have the nerves of horses,
The instincts of a dog,
When illness comes to loved ones
They know whereer they roam
Have you seen, without for reason,
A farther start for home?
They know and feel our "warnings"
As only Gipsies do;
They know the Norse Vardoger
They hear and see it, too.
They know when death has passed them,
And the death watch is at end.
They know when he is coming
The Unexpected Friend.
The men who live with Danger,
They take things as they go
In seeming unpreparedness,
To those who do not know.
They sleep when they have toiled and laughed
And fought for someones sake;
But Danger whispers in their ear,
And they are wide awake !
Poems by Henry Lawson
