The Nature of War

One was forced to end

Amid a smoldering field.

The innocence she once held,

Now lost as her stomach keeled.

 

The village which was home

And companions who she knew,

Now drifted through the air as ashes.

Sucked in through every breath she drew.

 

Her mouth became dry.

Her breathing choked and staggered.

The once peaceful reality

Had so suddenly shattered.

 

All alone the girl was,

Left abandoned and in fright.

Thinking herself to be dreaming

Her arm she gave a gruesome bite

 

Hot iron flooded her mouth

And pain flashed across her face.

Her body convulsed in agony

And was wrapped by a frigid embrace

 

As she drew her mouth from the wound

Her flesh made a dreadful tear.

And though blood now pooled on the ground,

Refused to end, did this nightmare

 

Looking up to the blazing sky

Her misery shown as she teared.

“Why couldn’t I have gone with them?,

Why couldn’t I have just disappeared?”

 

Falling onto her back,

Her body grew rigid and cold .

The world before her distorted

As reality continued to unfold.

 

Now gathered before her,

As spirits without a doubt,

Were her friends and loved ones,

Whose ashes were floating about.

 

The mother whom the girl loves,

Lovingly caresses her as she cries.

Now cradling the child in her arms

She begs her daughter to close her eyes

 

The daughter finally in comfort,

Listens to her mother’s pleads.

Wrapped by her soothing warmth,

Her life she finally concedes.

 

Ever so auspicious was her life,

To the heavens she was thought to tend.

But now she lies among her friends

Dreaming a dream that will never end-

 

Such is the nature of war

So heartless, cold, and vain.

Consuming all that it touches

Leaving nothing but a crimson rain.