Casualty

Jagged clumps of gory clay are fringed with smoke
which slithers among reminders of the fray
and curls up in the throat, causing one to choke.

Trenchant shards of patriotic fervor slay
all who get too close with government approved
ferocity, even some not in the way,

leaving these atrocities that may be moved
but whose fly encrusted condemnations reek
with spreading decay that is never behooved.

Rhetoric reverberates above the meek,
expressions of culture form a cool façade
disguising visceral rituals they wreak.

We bury our potential beneath the sod
a legacy of those who’ve spoken with God.