Dignity
My edge
My ace in the hole

Proudly I stride,
through the rows of mocking faces
Head held high

Proud
Dignified

The nightsky, a backdrop
painted milky white,
softened by the drifting of snow

On our backs
the roof, cold and hard
beneath us
a blanket of white covers the world

Slipping free,
falling softly into the drifts below us
as I close my eyes
you brush my lips with a kiss

I snap awake
but you're gone.

Two armies face,
Under wild and impartial skies.
Tension, drawn and nocked,
Waiting for the order to loose.

The drummers beat cadence,
Tempo building
Matching my racing pulse.
Clarion call,
Drowning out all thought.

Ground quaking,
With the pounding
Of hundreds of feet.
Battlecries and wordless screams
Split the air.

Alike to the one
Rising in my own throat.

love is the
sweetest blindness

adrift
on a sea of longing
I curse my frozen tongue

my heart
has so much to say

A foul wind blows off the wastes
Across a border set in stone
A land caught in winter's embrace

A fortress stands,
Stark and steadfast against the dark
Walls that have broken sword and tooth

Helmeted sentries
Alert and ready upon the ramparts
Never knowing peace
Wed only to death

Within the walls, life goes on
The chatter of townsfolk,
Hawkers shouting their wares,
The stomp of armoured feet
Marching to the city's heart

The keep
The citadel at the heart
Firm and steadfast
Held by men of valour,
Peace favour their swords.

okay,
Perfectly okay
     your words

so sweetly in my ear
close by my side,
     so close

so far,
were these arms wings
I would fly to you
     playing love by ear,

we're scared stiff
but we'll be perfectly okay,
     okay?

my heart
            shall burn brightly still
though unwanted

Poetry is freedom
Free of the shackles
of grammar
and format

Free verse
Forever

wake up
I shed these skins
that are not mine

open your eyes
I doff this mask,
shake loose these subtle facets

break free
I, the marionette
all strings cut

shall here-aft
dance for no one

Judge my masks,
I* am safe behind them

KABUL, Afghanistan
scorching sun
phantoms of heat
drifting above the roadway

Col. Geoff Parker, 42
"rising star"
perched in the command vehicle
proudly on guard

Taliban
wild rush -- crump
waves of heat and fire
spinning debris

"This barbaric act of aggression"
anger and outrage
desert wind flutters
tattered and scorched fatigues

"It's always unfortunate"
reek of charred flesh
guttering flames
unfortunate

Coiled tension
like a  spring
tightly wound

at rest
never resting

what wasn't said, what was
action and inaction
what could, what if

can't forget
wide awake

laden with turbulent thoughts
adrift in a roiling storm
a grainy record, looping

If only I. If only I. If only I.
if only if only
if -

I am standing
in the shadow of god machines

In the valley of death
wrapped in the bones of a dying sun

The city is incandescent
with the furnace flames

Of the great engine of war,
and I am floundering in the ashes

It is deafeningly silent,
and in the distance

I can see her,
in robes as bright a blue

As mine are ***** grey,
draped over my tired frame

We hold each other tight,
huddled close in a shallow crater

Finding sanctuary in turmoil
and in war
                      peace

Majestic spires
towering above the ground
like green sentinels

You asked me if it's weird
and I told you no

It's just
you've filled an empty
space in my heart

That I
never even knew was there

Now I'm
soaring at 30000 feet

Trying to
right my world
that you so pleasantly
turned on its head

It is with great sadness that
I write to inform you

this is madness
the smoke is so thick
stitched through with tracer fire
I can feel it burning the back of my throat,
stinging my eyes

That your son has been
killed in action

my rifle is bucking in my hands
recoiling from the slaughter
before me,
as I too recoil
nothing makes sense anymore

Words can not express
the sorrow

everything is slowing down
blood kisses the air before me
it's-
        oh god
it's my blood
I'm falling

You must be feeling
at this time

it's so quiet
I can't move
        oh god
it's so quiet,
why can I still hear the screams?

Know that he did his duty
and died for his country

*it's so quiet
so cold
I-

A pitiful heap
of emaciated bodies

Unceremoniously discarded
into a vast mass grave

Falling limp and lifeless
like marionettes with strings so brutally cut

I close my eyes to shut out the horror
but I can still see them

What seems an eternal nightmare
has lasted but a day

A couple waltzing
lilting and eloquent

The crackle of music
only they can hear

He clad in tattered suit
She in faded gown

Both long dead
and fading away

It's cruel and indecent of me
to expect you to climb
these walls

They are my walls,
I realize that now

To hide behind
to shut out the light
I care not to see

So I built this palisade
and from the ramparts
I can see you struggle and fume

It's my fault
I know
but I can begin to see

The sunlight
through the cracks

A gate
Plain and humble
Guarding the way to my sanctuary
My hidden refuge
The latch clicking shut behind me.

Beyond the gate,
A sun-dappled path,
Set in rough stone
Gravel crunching under my heel
Each step freedom.

The sweet perfume of wild flowers
Permeates the air
Growing between the ancient oaks
In uneven ranks along the trail.

The babbling of a creek
Draws me off my course
Like gold draws a miser.

I step into a wooded grove
A sparkling creek flowing
Cold, clear, and swift
Chilling my hand
As it cuts through the water.

The songs of birds,
The rustling of the wind through the grass,
The gentle gurgling of the creek,
Echo in the peaceful silence.

The sword at my side
Growing heavy with each passing moment
My weary fingers let it drop
Blade sinking into the soft earth.

Peace cannot last
Weary of heart
I stalk through the gate
The quiet click of the latch
Lost in the din of my mind.

An aching vista
strewn with wreckage
and drowning in mud

stretched out
like the entrails
of a gutted and dying landscape

soiled in the blood
of the young
sent to die

one by one
yard by yard
dropping like leaves

their cries snatched
from their chests in gusts
crimson flowers blossoming in turn

amid the graves
dug and filled
by a deluge of whistling shells

A rumbling,
Echoes across the shattered wasteland
Acid snow drifts in the caustic air
Past my helmet visor.

My gas filter rattles
As I **** in the foul air,
The next wave is coming
Great war machines,
Chugging slowly toward our battered dugouts.

And for what?
A body of unpolluted water
Barely wide enough to step over,
Or a tiny stretch of untainted farmland.

I sit in my ramshackle bunker
With my comrades,
Checking my rifle one last time,
Knowing in my heart, that we
Can't push back the next assault.

I sit silently cursing my ancestors,
For leaving me this god-forsaken legacy
For shattering my Earth.

As the first shells start to fall.

A fleet of ships
anchored among the rocks

Black flags raised
Grey white sails,
fluttering in the chill wind

With shrill cries
they take wing
and fly away

Ghost
drifting
Unseen
unheard and unnoticed
Skipped over
Missed and unmissed

Like a gust
of wind
Passed on
Out of mind
and quickly
forgotten

Ice in my lungs
      Fire in my limbs

Fly, Soar
       Soles brush the earth
       with teasing kisses

Pounding
       Rushing

Lightning
        down my fingertips
        Heart rattling tempo

Won't stop
        Every bleeding breath

                   *Exhilarating

Do you hear it?
The laughter?
You don't know, do you
That we are only here to serve THEM
Those so high, High above us

We are their pawns, their playthings
To them we are Nothing
They sit on their thrones laughing
at Us
Laughing their laughter
The laughter of dark Gods

Lost
Blindly wandering
Without hope

Nothing fulfills,
Everything eats away
at me

Waking each day
to an empty soul
Dreading each minute,
Every second

Building foundations for nothing
A soul wasted
Ever falling short

Let the music pass me by,
"God, I'm tired."

This poem means exactly as it says
there is no hidden meaning
behind these humble words

No secret connotation
I assure you
Nothing here but
words

So do not ask and ponder
do not seek and search
Just leave us be
as we are

Unspoiled
Pure
as words

Unto world's ruin
           where at the touch of a button
           a man can end millions
           without ever seeing the look in their eyes

I don't have to think
the thinking has already been done
for me ahead of time

it's all by rote
I've figured it out beforehand
I can speak now

my thoughts have been given form
and made ready
I don't have to think now

the verses flow by
steady, stanza by stanza
my tongue,
my mind

now is freed

Oh,
my heart
is yearning
to see you smile,

to hear your
sweet voice,
your laugh

like radiant
sunshine
piercing through
my cloudy days

I find my mind
drifting,
dreaming,
of you

and you'll never
know,
can never know

oh fate
how cruel
that keeps
us
apart

us?
no
only me,
alone
and dreaming of you.

Beneath the crosses
row on row
Lying silently,
in ordered ranks

Young men
whose lives
Cut short,
will
Never be lived

Too many names
erased,
blotted out,
Lost in cries
and bloodshed

Too many names
lying lost,
amid
Rusted shells
and dirt

Too many names
to remember

Too many names
to forget

Too many

I missed your hand,
As you reached out
to stop my fall.

It was too late
When I finally saw it
already slipping past.

Into the void,
Hope's bright light
Slowly fading
to black.

Spinning in a sea
of endless dark,
I am lost.

How long has it been?
How much longer?