Shadows Of The Dead

The heart hangs heavy of a warrior overcome

Twigs break beneath my feet as I make the long way home

When the time for duty came the fear was clear in their eyes

Their painful howls will ring when they see just I survive

My kinsmen lay behind me, prostrate in open graves

Cold and still, bereft of life, the field-of-slaughter's prey

As daylight wanes and birdsong fades I ponder what befell

Laid back on my bed of leaves I curse that I still dwell

Shadows of the dead bathe the field at sunset

Echoes of the slain haunt the dawn at daybreak

As dawn's embrace approaches and breaks my somber dreams

I call to mind our falling flag, my brethren's final screams

The harrowing sounds of conquest still pierce my troubled soul

As bent beneath the weight of grief I grimly wander on

Some are born to thrive, others doomed to die

As fate decrees, the threads proclaim

The path an arrow flies, a spear-thrust parried or true

A kingdom saved, or a tribe enslaved

The web that wyrd will weave, the outcome fortune deems

Joys unbound, or a burial mound

Courage that lasts or fails, the wind on hostile sails

Sorrow's tears or blissful cheers