Shadows alive as the sky falls

the black doorway open and welcoming

Come and speak, come and scream

Come and see the world beg for life and death

as you wander through a desert made for the broken-hearted

The wild kings live breathing as one

and the final escape seems unreachable

though the tracks of those who made it through hellfire

run past guards who secretly wish for the prisoner to escape

begging for someone to set fire to this wilderness

ready to watch the walls burn as the king appoints new bricklayers

so that revolution might come under the veil of necessity

and when the walls crumble

the defenses made from dust might stand tall against a gentle wind

while all the rest come forth out of shadow to tear them down

and cast them into the fires of a war fought long ago

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Pain and death, maybe, but war never changes.

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Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash