Mud, blood and decay battered their senses

Death's barbed claws tore at them

Poison's icy tentacles smothered them

The night stole their hope

The dark stole all mercy

Men turned into boys

And boys turned to ghosts.

Bombs exploded

Humans shouted

Bodies mangled

Souls destroyed

And all the while they crouched

They crouched and shivered and waited

They waited in the dark

In the dark and damp and ice

For the shells they waited, whistling and whining

For the guns they waited, booming and tolling

For the poison they waited, smoking and silent

For the friends they waited, vanished and gone

For death they waited

In this place

This deadly, forsaken place

This no hope land

This no joy land

This no-man's land.