The Dead Lay At The Feet Of The Broken

The dead lay at our feet

Right where we left them.

The dead lay at our feet

Right where we slit their throats

 

(Your pen is the sword in your hand

Ink and blood mix

Blue and red

Running together

In a sick pool of purple.)

 

The dead lay at our feet

A carpet of festering corpses.

The dead lay at our feet

If pity was something we could feel

We would.

 

This battleground is a mix

Of bodies and empty ink cartridges

 

(Remember the days when ink

Was something innocent.

Harmless splatters of blue that we flicked

Upon the white backs

Of brainless students

And the white pages

Of brainless books)

 

The dead lay at our feet

The game ended long ago.

The dead lay at our feet

We must have got carried away.

 

The sky is above

Mockingly clean and bright

Unstained by the purple ink-blood.

Pale blue.

So different from the deep blue

That drips from the nibs

Of our bloodied swords

(Pens)

 

The dead lay at our feet

The battle ended long ago.

The dead lay at our feet

But I think we’ve forgotten

How to feel.

 

Walk away.

But I can’t.

Run away.

But I’m stuck.

My feet glued to this scarred earth.

 

The dead lay at our feet

Oh how I envy their ability to leave.

The dead lay at our feet

They lay at the feet of the broken.

 

(Is there a word for people

With an inability to leave?)

 

My fellow fighters

(I called them friends once…)

Stand around me

Faces like cracked mirrors.

Do I look like that?

 

The dead lay at our feet

The lucky ones.

 

 

This is my pen-hand (sword-hand)

Committing its final act.

This is my red hand (we were caught out long ago)

Committing its final crime.

 

 

The dead lay (adjacent)

Our arms and legs twisted together

In a mass (mess) of festering corpses.

 

 

 

 

I think I finally walked away.

 

 

Reviews

[Eira Anchor]

*INSPIRED BY CIARA KILLICK*
wow, I'm just amazing, aren't I? no really, I trooooly loved it. You should show it to mr anderson (DONT) say it's war poetry.

stop using brackets so much claire! it's just confusing! i certainly am feeling very critical, aren't I?
:o I should be an editor! that's what I should do with my life! they get to read and critisize all day - and that's what I'm best at!... sorted.


(I don't think) you should show this you your Pa, Claire. :D

[Beatrice Mars]

.......

wow love it.
made me smile(in places)

[samantha]

nicely doe