Artillery Horse

Steam falls from venting nostrils

Legs shake, soaked in sweat

Hooves sink in blood-splashed mud

Flea eaten shoulders strain in straps

Wheels slide and slip

Leather creaks and splits

Hills rise and fall

Shaped by shell and shock

time...

Time is an incredible thing

It is not patient

And it is not kind

It defines

And

It slips away with a glass of wine

Time rings in our ears as we rush to and fro

Sluggishly slides by like a slow hopping toad

Time is complex

Time is a killer

Time has been judged

Tried

And set free

No one can lock it up

No one can hold it long

For

Time is an incredible thing

Tears...

The rumbling of the engine was like an aftershock rippling through the earth

The blades biting into the clay like hungry animals

The earth cries out in anguish at this violation

Rocked to her core she begins to weep

Muddy tears spring from her ruddy gashes

Blood

Blood as black as night pulses through her veins

Surging up

Up

Swelling towards those injuries

Those splits in her skin

It explodes from the dusty ground like a shattered artery

With every beat of her heart blood spills into the hot air

She bleeds until she’s dry

The rumbling engine stops

The boots march away

All that is left is a torn gash in the earth and the dried tears of the matriarch

Breath

The Great War:

Breath steams and pours from dry lips

Boots sink and squelch in mud

Dirty nails bite tooled wood

Mortars fall like mothers tears

Splashing to earth like falling stars

The rain stops

The fire lifts

The whistle blows

A shout

A shout

Comes like a whisper in the breeze

“Charge the wall! Charge the wall!”

 Ladders we climb

Fields we storm

Bullets we let fly

Blood we spill

Mire we fall to

Breath steams and pours from bloody lips

Thunder rolls with the ring of guns

Rain begins to fall

Pinging and clinking on dented helmets

Shakily written letters bleed into the freezing ground

Blood soaked words that lovers will never see

Tear soaked farewells fathers will never give