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.