A young man lies in the sun yellowed grass,

The noon sun high in the sky

Beating down on his dark skin.

The hole clubbed in his skull assaulted by flies.

A young man is prone in the arid desert,

His bronze armor glinting in the intense sunlight.

His eagle-crested pole planted a foot away.

The cut in his neck staining the sand red.

A dark-skinned figure watches with disinterest.

A young man is propped against a tree,

Billowous smoke traversing the forest,

Obscuring his red coat in grey.

The hole in his chest leaking a different shade of red.

A dark-skinned figure and a bronze eagle look on from the wooded canopy, unconcerned.

A young man is upright under the grey cloudy sky,

Slowly shifting under the church’s tall white cross,

His white silken angel with her hands around his neck.

The parachute wires continuing to crush his throat.

A dark-skinned figure, a bronze eagle, and red coat peer from a nearby roof, bored.

A young man sits surrounded by steel,

Thunderous explosions shaking the metal shell,

Acrid black smoke swirling in his goggles.

He rests in his flaming metal tomb.

A dark-skinned figure, a bronze eagle, a red coat, and a white-draped cross observe uncaringly.

A young man lies on the side of road,

The ground cratered two feet deep,

His eardrums burst and lungs deflated,

Blood pooling out of his amputated legs, as

his eyes

slowly

shut.

Five figures watch from the shadows, as the indefinite cycle repeats again.