1914

Mist and fog, sweltering grime

My eyes drift down our ragged line

Somewhere a cough somewhere a sob, we all know it's almost time

I need a cigarette

The rumbling grumble and whistle and

BOOM! where once stood men a dust

cloud looms- we all duck though there's

little use, ahead and behind triumphant tunes

The whistle's loud but shirks the weight,

600 men scramble to face their fate a head cracks back beside me

i think I knew that man

I'm not sure he died for freedom or state

As I charge through the muck with his

brains in my eyes, though I crave his death I WILL survive, and years after this with a bottle in hand, it's the children I've sired that I'll traumatize

Rain and wind and sweltering blood, I wretch and gag and glance at the sun half past nine the needle primes I drift off forget the time

Memories drift like lost typhoons where once stood trees a graveyard blooms somewhere a crack and somewhere a scream all in the name of the freedom we'd lose

A village burned, a city bombed, the bodies kicked and spit upon, the commanders cheer and throw back beers the survivors come back home to mobs I wake up

and my lungs feel numb

an oxygen tank has replaced my gun I sit

and stare at the ancient stump

that once I could have run upon

I need a cigarette