Gone

Where water meets land, man meets fate, blood

meets soil. Judgment surely awaits

Marching to certain death; what thoughts

cloud my mind and heart on this procession.

Carnage and fatality battle

love, kin and life within my internal darkness

of mind. Neither winning, as the march continues.

Daringly I push on. Surrounded by the dim

gloom of war, mocked by nature’s splendour. Death

will surely stain her. Not my own I pray, but

should my comrades perish in my stead? Fathers

and sons of wives and mothers surround me.

Might we all be spared? Enemy fled no blood spilled

Is my hopeful reverie. In my dream are the familiar faces

of a cherished life where your love was sustenance enough.

Silence broken, dream shattered,

men falling. My worst fear is realized – I am a coward.

Cowering behind corpses I wait. Bowels release,

the warmth is no comfort. Death seems a better option

than this. Remembering this scene a scar

too deep to bear, but fear chains me to my brethren’s deathbed.

I close my eyes to bring the dream back but it is

gone.



Copyright © poet_in_waiting ... [ 2006-07-06 13:06:57]
(Date/Time posted on site)