Bombs raining from the sky

in a barrage of opalescent fire
Undaunted by the river of blood
that flows in its wake

Insensate bullets race obliquely left and right
hungry for the hearts of young men
Disconcerted patriotism
permeates your haggard soul

You watch as your brothers fall
and succumb to the chloroform of death
The light that once gave you hope
dwindles into a mere myth

The enemy fastidiously approaches
its foreign technology screams towards you
War is a dishonorable aberration of glory

that leaves behind emaciated ideals

You escape into the trench that you now call home
to buy precious moments for your convalescing soul
So many dead, the earth cannot sustain the bodies
poverty, disease, and death increasing too fast

The grim reaper cannot collect all the souls
So some must linger and wait their turn
You cry out one last time in despair
and God answers your anemic plea

The fog of poisonous, petulant passion lifts

and the sun purifies the stench of war
Blue sky permeates the battlefield
laying a comforting blanket over the dead

This judgment day is ended

Man’s innocence is rended
But the tension and greed is always there
God’s armistice with man will not last for long

Nevertheless life goes on like the flower
that dies and is reborn again
Oblivious to those who were lost
And the tears of their kin