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