DEAD MEN WALKING
Dead men walking
Diamonds in their eyes
A crouching skeleton
An unmarked grave
Long forgotten men
A rattle of bones
Dying in the desert
For a pocket of stones
Dead men walking
Diamonds in their eyes
Dredging the backwash
Of an empty dream
Brave men and fools
A rattle of bones
A heavy price to pay
For a pocket of stones
Grinning skulls of dead men
Diamonds in their eyes
White skulls staring
At the sky
Dead men walking
Between the desert and the sea
A human stutter
In an unforgiving land
Empty footprints
Taken by the wind
A rattle of bones
On the sand
Grinning skulls of dead men
Diamonds in their eyes
White skulls staring
At the sky
DEAD MEN WALKING
The belief that untold wealth in the form of diamonds lies in the Skeleton Coast, and there for the taking, has drawn many a legal and illegal diamond prospector to a slow and thirsty death. The many unmarked graves and skeletons of men testify to this. Those who obtained permission soon found that the logistics of operating a mining venture in such a hostile environment made the work too costly and they abandoned their mines.
Maybe it is because I have picked up so many bones and skulls of birds and seals and small buck in my beachcombing rambles along West Coast that I have such a clear image of these bleaching skulls with diamonds in their deep eye sockets – staring at the sky.
- Barbara Fairhead