A wanderlust courses through my veins,
pride hangs heavy on my shoulders as I sign up,
and here I am crouched in a quagmire.
Fear like quicksand comes in waves
swallowing me whole.
A pulse in my eye twitches
mimicking the convulsing body to my right
which spews blood in great magenta pools,
congealing with the rancid water
swelling our feet and our eyes
to bulbous proportions.
Rifle fire peppers the bodies
carefully hauled, stacked and left on the parapet,
their eyes stolen by scavenging crows.
Surreal throaty echoes boom eerily back,
voices from the dead hitchhiking
on the resounding ricochet...