180000
4
On the battlefields of space/time
where fortunes shift
...like mud suspended
in a slow moving stream,
stained red
a burnt cordite cloud/mist hangs like a dense fog
as live rounds reach out, deliberately sent
...piercing flesh and blood with a deadly hiss
as falling in artillery rounds... pound killing fields
letting all present know without a doubt
death is inclined to dance with you tonight
all are invited to audition/decline if you will
prefer to seek/instead... suffer a single shot
to the back of the head
an innocent lost soul...
casting amidst clouds of war
adrift without a dog in the fight
...freed without a song to sing
not a single friend... whose veto you'd seek
to defend/pretending to know what's right
about misunderstanding/your lost will to fight
battlefield justice ...on either side, swift/on cue
as you fall on your face/your record of life erased
stuffed like dirty laundry in a soiled burlap sack
dumped on the pile out back, away from the others
who hung tough, to the end... at least they played
gonna get a bright new medal and shiny shoes
gonna get taps played by a real company bugler
and their momma will get a real, brand new
American flag, folded/just-so neatly
by fresh clean shaven soldiers
a seven gun salute
...just like in the movies...
everybody, except people like you
will see their debt is paid/the jukebox played...
the scene in the movie
of your lifetime, where nobody came
instead, places you
falling into an unmarked grave
...and winding staircases
crisscrossed
yours, placed inside
a big empty hanger
with theirs...
spirits awaiting orders
unearthly silence...
a choir of angels...swings low...
carries away those who served honorably
going up till it's out of sight
and yours going nowhere, fast...
in battlefield of life...
good or evil/your choice
Jesus... paid in blood
...yours, and
mine
C2
