by Alexa Gaffaney

Artwork by Alexa Gaffaney

---

(WE ARE BUT DUST AND SHADOW)

This is the battlefield,

nothing left but the memory of death;

ash carried away by a blaze of wind,

gone in a single breath.

 

This is the broken dawn

reaching its endless bloody fingers

to cross the rising storm and

enter the flaming cinders.

 

This is where the fallen

echo with their thoughts

of hollow flight and silent dark,

of swift and stealthy gunshots.

 

This is the empty void

left to fill the eternal eclipse,

forced to embrace the reason

that spurs from its scarred lips.

 

This is the illusion

of a long forgotten scream,

the whispers of the wounded,

the valor of the dream.

 

This is our defeated state,

we are bound in our sorrow;

the world has left us nothing,

we are but dust and shadow.

---