The Heart of the Battle, Lana M. Bromling [black male authors TXT] 📗

Sweat pours down my face
Like sticky tropical rain
As I crouch here in the desert
Locked in this deadly game

A round of rapid fire,
Guns blazing with blue flames
Comrades fall beside me
I don’t even know their names

My thoughts are trapped inside
This cursed stifling helmet
They can’t escape, they reverberate
Suffocating me with their torment

The heat is finally getting to me
My energy is failing
My haggard breath is all I hear
Drowning out the wailing

This is just one battle
I am just one man
One more faceless soldier
Like those lying in the sand

My vision becomes obstructed
Why should I go on?
I’m having trouble remembering
Why I ever signed on

My eyes roll heavenward,
The final volley will begin soon
I must continue fighting
Continue to press through

For the lives of all my people
This fallen race of man
Enlisted my services
To protect our home land

My heart drops to my stomach
At my enemy’s feral roar
How many must I take out
To settle this bloody score?

A hastened prayer
Eyes squeezed tight
Then I rise, determined
To finish the fight

Ignoring the bullets
I cast my helmet to the ground
Their mouths are moving
Yet my heartbeat is the only sound

A cry escapes my throat
As I meet my enemy head on
Fire consumes my vision
As I break into the throng

A sudden blow to my head
A striking crimson tide
Leaves me kneeling prostrate
Before my enemy’s eyes

Throbbing, it can’t end this way
I battle darkness for my eyes
Another of my companions
Fights foe to save my life

I stagger to my feet
Returning to the fray
Taking down any enemy
Standing in my way

Lightning rents air
Striking before my feet
A new kind of volley
Falls from heaven’s gate

The rain, a torrential downpour
Soaks my bloodied head
Rather than hate the thunderstorm
I welcome it instead

With vigor I fling myself
At what’s left of the enemy horde
Rapid fire from my gun
Fingers moving of their own accord

So we rage
For how long I know not
In this wretched canyon
That cursed time forgot

At last I can go no longer
Thunder brings me to my knees
Exhaustion takes it’s toll
I bid welcome to the beasts

My parched throat chokes it’s last
My heart pounds out the rain
Darkness consumes my vision
But perhaps death is a gain

Am I dead?
Why does heaven feel like rain?
I was always told that heaven
Would not include pain

My eyelids stagger open
To the barrel of a gun
A friend offers me to take it
And stammers that we’ve won

The thunder stopped
There is no more gunfire
We’re standing in the heart
Of where the carnage transpired

A new day awakens
Over the horizon breaks the sun
This war that is beginning
Is ours to be won

Publication Date: 08-13-2010

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