Panopticon Beast Rider
Foot left the road
By the temperance river
Superior ringing dreams
She passed through valleys
Upon scalloped hills
Now thick as the aspen woods
Winter was short
Abnormally dry
Snowfall had been so slight
The sun had set
Yet the journey she made
Under the Northern Lights
But the cabin wasn't far
For a drunkard
So she followed the guide of the stars
The thaw had been early
But not a stitch of green
And the fear grew in her heart
She stumbled through the spruce
Turned a blind corner
Just shy of a cabin up the way
There it stood
Like a tall dark shadow
Bringer of her last day
Morning came;
They scoured the woods
But there was neither sight nor sound
And to this day
There are no remains
A wallet is all they found
But if you listen
Between the waves
There echoes her last breath drawn
Under the northern lights
By the temperance river
She rides that beast into the dawn