Soldier of Irony’s Fortune”
Weapons of destruction rattle death's leer embodying the
night-
unabashedly broadcasting their presence admidst negation of
light.
With this, a reminder of their temporarily docile state
holding thunder at bay
and lightning to the day
As a new day uncloaks...
so the fury smoulders;
melting to ashes....
all passions born of war
Partiotism dissipâtes with the battlefield smoke
Only the God of silence gradiloquently spoke
Two birds fly overhead
Unraveling war's puzzle is the soldier's greatest
aspiration-
though thought embedded in iron eeks so faintly
helmet, webgear, rifle, and gas mask....
burden the body with surreal tangibility,
while demands of military duty....
constrict the mind with blatant invisibility.
For everthing in a soldier's world twists backward....
then is magnified tenfold
Diesel's smell is unbiquitousi...
permeating the air-
with the fear of death riding tenaciously...
on its dark flailing coattails
There is no peace
Each moment is a cycle engulfed by false stillness-
immersed in illusion even more disturbing
Quiescence is an eruption that has happened-
or might just as well have.
Even shadows seem quiet to the apprentice of truth....
truth being the square peg in this dark round abyss
The uniform camouflaging the body... ■
is like macho clothing true strength
All must appear ornately as it's supposed to have been;
In this game play flesh and blood robots bonded with steel.
Yet pain, discomfort, and hunger these automatons do feel.
The war machine cranks a sprocket...
ever-turning in their brains-
with another turning opposite inside their guts.
The two grind each other in a vice-like contriction;;
their duel for supremacy is fear's internal combustion
The foundationless concrete this stranglehold moulds
is still solid ground
keeping them from floating to where even stars aren't sound
The skies and the heavens and the soul are one
so is trickery, and love, and all thats mundane
Yes, a soldiets free will is more destiny's than his own;
and what time destiny gives him is but a heavy interest loan
Images of home effervescing in his mind...
plague the soldier's waking night and drudgery-filled day
The sudden din of battle explodes, shattering reveries-
quieting petty quarrels with its contumacious bawl
Shiva's roar is omnipresent
His destruction more apparent
The wounded scream in agony...
combining with bloodlust screams
synergizing with ones of terror...
into an unearthly cacophony
rifles pop in unison-
broken in their rhythm.
Artillery fire deafens...
spitting supersonic booms
Machine guns fire rapidly...
while flares light up the sky
A man screams "Incoming!"
O
shells barrage the Earth-
blowing ten men shrieking...
\
to a Horrible death
\
Its a hellish symphony only Kali-Goddess of bloodshed-
could conduct
Two canisters thud the ground...
hissing like snakes
"Gas!" screams a sergeant.......
throwing his mask to his face
~ .
Mask carriers are popping and unsnapping everywhere;
Three men are lagging...
their reactions too slow;
Darkness hides their faces....
contorting for air;
Each breath stokes a fire.J-
of searing agony-
mercilessly consuming. ..
then vanquishing its flesh
Art by
Vernon
Souders
To the dove, the carnage witnessed is a tragic horror
Genocide's sweeping sward held no quarter
To the owl it's man'd debt to the law of recompense-
a law inescapable and one he can't harder
Most went to the grave owing countless payments in full
for none will Yama, judge of the dead lull
The end stops not here tho some wish it would
we are soldiers more than once, more than many
The corpses littering the fields toil not;
but the souls who discarded these husks undoubtedly soon will
All but one!
When he walked and breathed he was shunned and maligned
His demeanor was adventurous but humbly resigned
No one really knew him or attempted to
only their prejudice saw him... or attempted to
Arrogance cannot hear quiet wisdom over its own boasting
Men love mystery in things but not in other men
They died with desires pregnant with wanting
He died hearing music-magnificent and haunting
Not only shall the meek inherit the earth...
so shall the ravenous;
the spoils of war are of this world also
Scott Wyland