As We Await the Next

Another night of shelling another night in hell
To lie in stench filled trenches watching bodies swell
Seeing the grimace of death engraved on ones so young
From Utopia they were born, now I'm in among

I can't think how ludicrous it is to await the next
Seeing futures disappear, oh! how it leaves me vexed
Trenches, bolt holes and craters, filling with rotting flesh
Barbed wire like human snares, now a crimsoned mesh

My eyes in tears now close as I hear the dying cry
Whilst a solitary shot sounds out, invisible through the sky
This silent assassin awaits their unsuspecting foe
For through a lapse in theatre, another life will slow

The evening I dreaded is upon us, this is no fireworks display
It's another sign of man, and their self destruction play
Many hours ahead now await in this shell shattered surround
How many of us will still be standing, or swallowed by the ground

The above is all I can remember from those days from a war torn past
I'm so fortunate to recall so little, whilst many colleagues cast
I've lived a life of years, so many more than them
What or who decided to chose from these heroic fighting men 








http://www.thehighlanderspoems.com/war-8.php
Copyright © | Year Posted 2011

Poem

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Kendrick Avatar
July 30, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Enjoyed reading your work about what it must be like in the trenches of war..One of your best..Sara
Ross Jr. Avatar
July 30, 2011 at 2:35 PM
Excellent write so true and sad....God bless...old Jack
Roberts Avatar
July 30, 2011 at 1:34 PM
wonderfully penned James, very touching piece on the atrocity that is war
Cooke Avatar
July 30, 2011 at 12:54 PM
wow top poem its got it all. image fear, even the assassin. love it .deserves more than a seven. a pleasant change from some of the medeocre stuff i have seen.
Onclaud Avatar
July 30, 2011 at 12:38 PM
a bombardment of visceral images, king!... a most powerful write..:) huggs, nette
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