Burned

CATEGORY

life

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

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