Member-only story
Leaving War
A decade and a half ago, my path
Was no longer littered with deadly, repurposed trash and animal carcasses
Lurking, waiting silently to explode underneath or beside me
The weekly hurling of improvised ordnance over the walls was over, for me
This hellish world behind me, I have since tread carefully, hyper-aware
And for some time my path was dimly lit by cynical streetlights that
Would dim upon my approach, then
Relight themselves behind my back
Shrouded always, darkness closed in and enveloped me
The ghosts of the still, windless night sing softly
and chide “No, no help for you the hopeless
You, the lost among survivors”
My mind drowned in the dark sea, ceaseless, crashing waves flipped me
Upside down, shackled to a consciousness where
The war within me shook, tossed, crashed, and destroyed
With the same violence and power of the war that lie behind me
But within this darkness and cruelty is
One light that burned brightly, often
Flickering with the blackness of hate, fear, confusion, and death
But that light is the light that led me home
