Shimmer

The light fades quickly, first grey, then black, As summer has passed, and Autumn's back, I stop and gaze upon this trail, A shimmer, distant, halts my track, The day before was filled with blood, Streaming through heather, like a flood, Companions gone, wounded or dead. The shimmer calls me from the mud. Aghast with fear, this shimmer moves, A step back I take, stumble too, The shimmer cries from where it lays. Its coat is red, wet from dew. Buttons, the shimmer, on his cloak, A soldier I fought, his spirit broke, One day before, they spared not one, His last word “Why?”, was all he spoke. Shimmer had a peaceful end. Graham Alexander Devenish