Issue 23 · One poem
Casualties of War
Love as battlefield — and the hope of rising.
Love is an emotion, which stays on my mind.
While I look for
That One'm destined to find.
In an age old war, a solder I have become.
While healing the wounds of battles past, to my emotions I succumb.
Trying to remember which scars were caused by my foes,
And remembering wounds inflicted by my own blows,
The battle field grows dense with death's bloody mask.
The only hope for my future may lie in my forgotten past.
A foe, a friend, an enemy, or a lover.
How can I be certain that there is no other?
Way for me to know or at least be at peace.
For the pains and sorrow of my greatest battle once again has been realized.
From the depths of my broken heart and the bottom of my loins.
A child walks this Earth from within an emotion I have yet to join.
Will I rise to the title and earn the heroes reward in store,
Or will I merely be numbered amongst the casualties of this war.
“Or will I merely be numbered amongst the casualties of this war.”
Casualties of War
§Clark J. Madsen