THE FIREFIGHT

A Night-piece for Guns

The big guns rumbled in the dark

And the heavens danced with fire.

A soldier stared into the night

And laid his rifle down.

He stood in silence for a time,

His face a-shine with tears,

As the big guns rumbled in the dark

And the heavens danced with fire.

With a wracking shriek he turned

And stumbled toward the trees,

As the big guns rumbled in the dark

And the heavens danced with fire.

Tracers ripped the darkness up

With streaks of searing red,

And rotors whipped the smoke-filled air

Into surreal swirls painted with flares.

A bullet caught the warrior-child

And killed him as he ran.

The big guns rumbled in the dark

And the heavens danced with fire.

A rifle rattled in the night,

Then all was sharply still.

The soldier lay in the bloody mud

And the fighting passed him by,

As the big guns quietened in the dark

And the heavens quenched their fire.