Soldier

You shake - terror makes your body tremble,
There is noise all around,
Screaming, shouting, crashes, and gunshots.

The sound of death.

Your heart lurches, you cannot leave.
Death surrounds you - it's closing in.
The power is in your hands, you pull a trigger and take a life,
An enemy's blood seeps into the ground.

Look around.

More blood,
More bodies,
Friends and enemies - now all entertwined as they mix together when entering the earth,
You shake with fear and shock and disgust,
You lose yourself in anguish.

Then you are gone.

So fast, you almost didn't feel it,
Now you are everywhere:

In the earth,
On your fellow soldiers' skin,
Pieces of you float up, carried by wind and smoke.

You spread everywhere,
Smeared over the planet.

Trees take you in by their roots,
People taste your existence in it's fruit.

You fall in the rain,
You drench your own family as they travel home.

You feel nothing,
Not anymore,
But you are everywhere.

We remember you,
Soldier.