PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

My mind was always a bloody battle ground

Where I ploughed the gore-crusted fields of war

It was slaked mud that crunched 

From trampling jackboots

Pure snow driven and tamped by marching feet

into icy sleet

How I longed for peace

For the end of war

I wanted to go home

I wanted to be left to myself

I hid in those trenches,

With my brothers in arms,

shoulder to shoulder,

Our backs to the wall.

We drew our long coats tight,

And we buried our faces

in each other's cold necks

For there we waited for the next onslaught to begin

Timid rabbit boys

clutching loaded guns

and unlit cigarettes 

The field was soaked in rust smelling blood

Which turned black and bracken in the wintry hell

And we stood in the frozen bog 

after each victory, soaked in red

Steam curling off our scarlet blades

Watching the survivors flee our rage

As the bodies stacked beneath me

As the years dragged on

I had the gall to be proud

But you must understand,

I was finally defending myself

I was trying to go home

The winter wind always brought another foe

It was there he found me,

He staggered onto the freezing battlefield

At twilight's last hurrah 

He and his men looked as haggard as me and mine

He held himself with the same defensive fear

As I held myself,

We met when we were barely holding ourselves together

Love me better, he pled, love me better

But I didn't understand, and

neither of us were ready to call off our men 

So I roared, and we attacked each other

I do not remember how we locked arms

Our lips, Greek and gracious

Saying hateful things

"Bosie, don't say such things!" he wailed

The fighting dragged on

And I remember the pain in his face

As I slammed him on his back,

into the mud

I slapped him

Oh, the shame in my gut---

He wept openly

there was fighting all around us

My hands wrapped around his delicate throat

"I love you," he choked and it drove me to fury

How could he say such a thing,

just to mock me!?

And I killed him as the sun came up

His leaderless army fled

And I straddled his unbreathing chest

Panting like a starved dog

I looked around---

Everyone was gone

or dead

In the orange dawn

The steam of my breath

Rose like battle smoke to the sky

And in that frozen carnage

As the crows and wild mutts descended 

I screamed---

No,

I wept

I never found home

But

I was finally alone