War Veterans

Their spirit beat the void, like the bird from out the ark. Their soul was as a lampless sea. Their thoughts came yapping and growling round them like a pack of curs. They breathe to Heaven like vapor goes. They moved hither and thither like insects in their crevices. Quaking and quivering like a short-haired puppy after a ducking battlefield. In An unknown world, wild as primeval chaos. Calmly dropping care like a mantle from their shoulders. Weapons destructive as the lightning flash. Frightened like a child in the dark. Their heart grown icy as a fountain in the fall. Poured the bullets upon their enemies like trembling flood. Their impulse came and went like fireflies in the dusk. Their eyes blazed like deep forests and glowed like blue coals. Their mind murmurs like a harp among the trees. Their nerves thrilled like throbbing violins. Their revenge descends perfect, sudden, like a curse from heaven. Fight impressively as a warrant of arrest for high treason. Their voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds. Their souls wavered and shook like a wind-swept leaf. Words from the captain gave a curious satisfaction, as when a coin, tested, rings true gold. Life stretched before them alluring and various as the open road. Memory and emotion surged in their souls like a tempest. Their enemies broken like a dam of river reeds. So Let the Flags of Freedom Fly Unfurled in Their Majesty High.