when my hands fail
the sights I see just as sleep creeps in

photo field of flowers
growing pictures of us
raising hopeful heads to sun

scorched colours fade out
what have I done
how can there be any other path
than that one road I felt compelled to take

you burned the most precious place
I ever hoped to hold
why do I feel that now
left to widow this plain
I have sold the land to solitude
fenced this battlefield memory inwards
vowed never to plant the same seeds
I once watched my soldier reap

sorrow seeks me
snap and glide
crows wings circle
over dry dust

the questions that come to me
why the desire to toil and turn
the dirt of this one fold of land
when I could lay my name to others
travel if I wanted to
never even turn back

but I do
roll over
seek sleep
like a black bird