Talvisota

Talvisota

Factitious precursors of arbitrary nations Continental powers jostle for position

War weary men observe grimly from flesh-rich gravesides

First weapons are of words, descending like vultures then gone in an incendiary rain

Isthmus soon choked with hundreds of thousands

Five routes of invasion mark the beginning

Clustered to fire at night Choosing the quicker of deaths

Frigid immobilization Fodder for an alien creed

Where murder upholds commands and enemies are saviours

When the wounded become glacial statues of reticent desperation

Who was it that predicted swift victory with little resistance?

"Why?" they wonder as the warmth of their blood wanes to ice

In heaps lay some while others fall in long rows

Fanaticism well wielded deflects what seemed forgone

Starved Frozen Massed for execution

Weapons burden capitulating hordes

What can possibly be offered to a people

By a vanguard forsaken and forlorn?

Gnawing beast from the steppes Human tide pliant yet unremitting

Death invisible inducing fear of darkness

Unable to pray even for an end

Infiltrated encampments erupt perfervid blood frenzy

No friend No foe No advance No retreat

Attacks planned solely for dislodgment Layers of corpses triply thick

Yet reinforcements seem inexhaustible as did the obstinant protectors

Bombardments once inconceivable break now fabled lines

Over fields of the fallen swarms a final thrust

Self-inflicted wounds of Esau from a blade not his own