Soldiers ripped apart

Flashes of lightning merge with

incoming shells of deadly

explosives, tearing a face

off a head, leaving nothing

but a skull under helmet

revealing with each flicker

enemy soldiers dying

yet living on in your mind.

Soldiers ripped apart

still running while expiring,

become ghosts before you

while fatal gases bursting

nearby their scattered

remains of legs and torsos,

release fogs of death

where they lay gone but still there.

Their helmets still on their heads

remind you that their bullets

may find you with yours still on

and also rip you apart

to leave you in this graveyard

fighting them in death’s cold grip

forever, never resting

from battles waged in trenches.

Soldiers ripped apart

still running while expiring,

become ghosts before you

while fatal gases bursting

nearby their scattered

remains of legs and torsos,

release fogs of death

where they lay gone but still there.

They’re coming to take our lives:

their fallen comrades rising

from muddy craters blasted

into earth’s face once perfect

but damaged and scarred beyond

any hope of restoring

her beauty now ripped away

forever, just like nothing.

Soldiers ripped apart

still running while expiring,

become ghosts before you

while fatal gases bursting

nearby their scattered

remains of legs and torsos,

release fogs of death

where they lay gone but still here.

Rats eat them, gnawing their bones

reducing all their features

to nothing you remember

apart from the silent laughter

escaping their gaping teeth

at the war to end all wars

and mocking all the glories

of battle now forgotten.