Breathe

Dear Father, There is so much death here That I dare not breathe The staggering stench of civility This scurrilous silence of infamy Clinging to the remains of children Now but an empty glare The sky is a poisonous plume Drowning the once bellowing sun As sealed letters of siphoned voices Trickle beneath the ruddy rubble Held hostage in dying pockets Never to be heard by the living Again There are bodies in roadways Tossed like carcasses of meat Entire families ravaged Rotting In crimson soaked ravines How did it come to this This blasphemy of blessings Where nightmares dream of empty beds And modest meals serve warm faces That hold the frigid world at bay Until the widows of war sail Again Forgive me For my pride has forsaken All that I hold dear The company of my brothers The prayers of my mother The wishes of my father Which still guide my trembling hand As these words posthumously breathe Off the page I am…home