When I look down

When I look down

From the high ground

I can see

Forever

Is an aspect

With too much self-regard.

There is beauty

In the rise of smoke

Heaven bound

Spirits fly

Escaping suffocation.

Lost souls

Pull at my thoughts

I feel the weight

Of sacrifice

I see their names

Etched in hardship

Written in blood

Stay your prayers

Their delivery

Is no reward.

I am not god

With my half brain

Barely competent

At life

Just as lost

As everyone else.

I can see the lie in it

Nothing is perfect

In death

The living are gagged.

Blind dogs wail

Incoherently

As the tongue twisters

With sharp sticks

Poke the life

Out of the mummers

In death masks

And the reavers

Rewrite the rules

Of engagement.