Swallowed by the darkness deep,
the salted earth consumes.
Tearing skin and pocking bone,
ashes drift overhead in plumes.
Whitened teeth curled toward a grin,
or grimace, none can tell.
And in the shallows waiting,
the end of eternity looms.
The ever-present battlefield,
lay burned and wasted above.
Lives of the fallen long lost,
blood poured from those once loved.
Slaughtered in the prime of life,
forgotten to the realms of past.
Shattered dreams walk single file,
and into the light were shoved.
Fond memory fades to tomorrow's fear,
Sweet songs become sour and turn.
Where laughter once stood strong,
Now only anger and despair burn.
Honour sacrifice and avenge the death,
By taking more forced lives away.
To continue the cycle onward still,
while for the end of the circle yearn.
Shoulder to shoulder and back to back,
countless lines of marching stone.
Walking as one toward a mindless end,
scraped clean to bleached bone.
Pulled by a stream of half truths,
Rallied behind a cause of lies,
Surrounded by the many who swore,
only to all die broken alone.
