Terrified Lips

Intellectual activity droops
from the tongue's flattered wisps of cold laughter -
dead eyes carve wisdom into white carnage;
skin and bone explosions in the mind's eye,
and sleep's a thin line above a chasm
where each step placed burns the spirit's colour,
there's a wild flower of insanity
that stands alone in the folds of friendship,
alienation screams warm misery
through quiet time, before the bullet hits.

Terrified lips quiver pain as silence
washes hearts with anticipation's flow,
here in the trenches there's only one way
of escape from the horror of madness,
to climb murder's cliff and slaughter the soul,
a kill or be killed mentality whisks
past the face as I stand and wave farewell,
then I roar my battered humanity
into the violent dawn's shocked tears; bitter
rivers of life which catch hold of my death.