Trenches

Discarded shells and charcoal spew midst dying blades,
Tremendous bellow rips the silence as cruel hand invades.
Bombardment resonates, detonates, ripples across tired terrain,
Lost souls diminished, stray into the light, those left behind refrain.
 
Human debris in sombre, sporadic amidst the blitz,
Like sacrificial lambs awaiting untimely deathly kiss.
Infantry marches toward the beast in silhouette,
On the horizon beneath darkened skies, cries but no regrets.
 
Men in creed take solace in the stories of others,
Innocence upon tarnished pasture, tales of our mothers,
Tales of long ago, a childhood robbed by war,
I cradle in the trenches and dream of tomorrows lure.
 
Beckoned I raise my head, into no man’s land I go,
I climb to my knees uncertain midst gunfire in flow.
I venture, my purpose alludes my senses,
I stomach the screams as I ascend the trenches.
 
Crimson red blots the sun, the skies alight with bombs,
I wander, ponder forward, recall of where I’m from.
My fear of what awaits, my sin is gone.
My end like so many, into history it weaves,
One day we’ll take what’s ours, but today is the day I leave.