expanse of grass, raw gashed, and granite scarred.
A deep black mirror gouged in glory there
reflects the great gorged beast unsated of
his glutton banquet, this sullied flesh and stone,
these many thousand souls more fortunate
than we escaping refugees, we maimed
of mind and limb and heart -- at seventeen
but babes, at eighteen ageless witnesses
to lifetimes such as most will never see.
This visage without mercy, old as man,
revealed in polished stone, forever prowls
through shadowed valleys in man's heart. Beloved,
unloving demon seeking endless gore
in sacrifice, is never satisfied
of death nor far removed from us who've known
the altar through his evil eyes ourselves.
The grief a hundred million mothers loose
will not allow the senses to be shut
against the murky Hell these red-shot holes
have stared across. A flood of perfumed rain
from all the world's seas would never wash
the smell of blood from off this stone,
nor soothe the jagged wounds within this rock,
these tears with names, inscribed upon this face.
Beside this midnight stone, I take my cheer
this endless night, await the dawn to break,
to root the sorrow out from memory,
erase the troubled visions from my brain,
illuminate the names of those we miss,
who've bought for us, and for our friends, this Day
to freely breathe unfettered air. Their knell
has rung. May God forever grant them peace.