Battle Face

Battle face 5/24/2012

Turn off the lights
And close the door, behind you
Because all who enter here
Must see in the dark.

Feeling their way
Through the shadows
And tip toeing through the mines
Back through time
And back through the slaughter.

Hope is like a white light
On a dead red moon
And regret is like broken glass
Underneath your tongue.

Mystery is like a dream
Too good to be true
And deception is like a knife in the back
Twisting slowly in your spine.

Dread is a cold dark flame
That burns in the heart
Killing all your feelings
From the inside out.

So much for the rewards
Of life wasted along the way
Destroying myself
And everything else.

The test has come
And we have failed
Sleep walking through life
And afraid of the dark.

Too timid to tell the truth
And too kind to be stand strong
Dead to the world
And all but forgotten.

The beasts in the field
Look for the stragglers
And the weak
Killing to survive
By instinct and guile.

But man is the greatest
And he alone will sacrifice
Paying the price
Of one for many.

He stands straight
And takes it on the head
Straining with all his might
Not to show any pain.

Keeping his composure
Until the very end
Giving up his ghost
With dignity and honor.

But he goes not meekly
But with defiance and strength
True to his conscience
And God almighty.

Never giving in
And never giving up
With truth on his lips
No matter what the cost.

Because there is no need to rise
If you have not fallen
And there is no need to hate
If you are in the right.

To all of you
Who may come after
And to all of you
Who have come before
There is the word
And there is the truth.

The promise of a better world
On the other side of atrocity
For those who rely on God
And not on themselves.

I am incomplete
A mere man halfway through
Lost in doubt
And romantic illusions.

But we are never far from the light
When we learn how to trust
Knowing who to ask
And who to believe.