As I Lay With My Head in Your Lap, Camerado
AS I LAY WITH MY HEAD IN YOUR LAP,
CAMERADO.
AS I lay with my head in your lap, camerado,
The confession I made I resume—what I said to you and the open air I resume: I know I am restless, and make others so; I know my words are weapons, full of danger, full of death; (Indeed I am myself the real soldier; It is not he, there, with his bayonet, and not the red-striped
artilleryman;) For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to
unsettle them; I am more resolute because all have denied me, than I could
ever have been had all accepted me; I heed not, and have never heeded, either experience, cau-
tions, majorities, nor ridicule; And the threat of what is call'd hell is little or nothing to
me; And the lure of what is call'd heaven is little or nothing
to me; …Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward
with me, and still urge you, without the least idea
what is our destination, Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell'd and
defeated.