I hold my rifle tight to my chest.
Feeling it�s warmth through my cold jacket.
I can remember my home, my wife, and my children.
And that bar at the corner of the street, where my best of friends are probably at right now.
Slowly sipping off the top of their last drink in America.
Savoring every taste, every smell.
I can still see the three women, pointing and laughing from the corner of the bar.
Their legs like silk, their chests heaving with every breath.
Like angels they stole me away from that reality.
But I am here! Here just sitting and waiting in my own grave!
And for the first time, I notice the constant scream of bullets overhead. I can almost see them.
And then I see the German who shot it!
And I smell his stench, and I am once again filled with the murderous hate I was trained to feel!
Then I can�t wait for the call to charge! Attack! Attack!
My Ally slaps my helmet, and I turn and slap the helmet of the next ally, and he does the same, and so on.
Until there are a thousand of us climbing our way out of the trenches!
And now it was finally coming true.
And I felt this cold, dark feeling wrap around me.
It held tight like a second skin.
It became a part of me.
I started to slide into a terrible fear, and my legs began to give.
But I was snapped back to attention as I saw my ally fall to the ground, a bullet cracking his skull.
And in my minds eye, I saw the German who shot that bullet!
And I am filled with the hate!
It flows through my veins, my muscles tense with it�s excitement, and with all of it�s energy I jump through the tangle of twisted bodies and barbed wire.
But that was all I had, and that empty feeling was back again, knocking at my soul.
Now, I could see the German. Down close to the ground, rifle aiming.
But he was not the one who had fired the shot, no, it was the German who had also left his home, his wife, and his children.
It was that German who had left his friends at the bar, and the one who was captured for one night, by those three silken women.
I opened my heart to this man.
I spread out my arms.
Death guarding me.
The gates to Heaven opening, my soul slipping into the realm of timeless space.
And it was finished, Death taking it�s guard with it as it left for it�s underworld.
The empty feeling following it to it�s lightless home.
A bullet from my ally, aimed for a German, shattered my spine.
A bullet from a German, aimed for an Ally, pierced my lungs.
But I did not feel the pain, and fear was not with me as I fell.
As my eyes slowly fell closed
I saw the German.
A bullet in his heart, spilling his blood on the chewed ground.
But he was also looking at me.
And together,
side by side,
Allies
we walked the steps to Heaven.
Our time is passing now. It's last cries are heard retreating through the burnt
forests. The tears of our land soak the ground, heavy raindrops fall on our bleached bones. Golden roads are now muddy ditches criss crossing the thousands of battlefields. A mother holds the cold body of her son. Her last heartbeats barely felt through yellow skin. The veins of my people carrying proud blood no more. I walk through the burning rubble that was once our capitol. The screams of it's citizens echoing in my mind. My mind, nothing is it now, I laugh at it's presence. Wonderful, peaceful thoughts once played through the green fields of my mind, but now there are only their skeletons left to rot in a black field, stripped of it's color and life. I look down at my body. I was strong, my bones were like the heaviest metal, my skin was like the most delicate shell. I try to lift my arms to see my hands, but it is not possible. Long ago I was robbed of that right, by their chemicals, their poisons they spread over my lands in a suffocating cloud of gray. I look down at my feet, my weak bones barely covered by thin patches of yellow skin. My toenails slowly rotting away. I wish they would just go! Leave me to my waste, like everyone else has! Then I notice my self reflecting in a shallow puddle. A thin beard desperately trying to cover my face, but finding it impossible like so many other things. The skin on my face so tight I can see the crooked pattern of my teeth. I want to smile at myself, to smile and laugh like I did before, but that gift has been taken away. Both my muscles and my spirit are too weak. My bald head shows the long darkened lines of aging, yet I am still so young. Their poisons speed up our aging, our children die of old age at only 18. So I guess I can count myself lucky to have lived for as long as I have, or I am cursed with the gift of life. As I stare down at my churning reflection, I see their sign. Their blinding, deadly symbol. It's speed the envy of Death itself. It's twisted brilliance able to corrupt the minds of whoever it traps in it's gaze. A
hypnotic painting, our people were at once taken in by it's beauty, never seeing
the predator which was stalking us through the branches of lies. It's colors flowed like a river of silk. RED....WHITE..... and finally, BLUE.
Links to other sites in the Fortress
Message from the Author
people have been here since May 10, 1998.
� 1997 [email protected]
Get your own Free Home Page