When Cannons Fade

In gardens where the daisies wear their stains,

the whispers of a thousand hearts entangled,

as lovers dance like shadows in the Amazon, their laughter

swallowed by the tempest’s brine.

With hearts ablaze, they chased the siren’s call,

An odyssey of passion, duty’s joker,

Where dreams of bliss rise high and swiftly stumble,

In vibrant hues, they spun their fervent quest,

a prism casting shards,

they surged with visions of a perfect life.

Patriotism, a wildfire in their veins,

A patchwork quilt of love, tightly patched,

Yet camaraderie, a chain that breaks and burdens,

In shadowed corners, joy is overthrown.

When Cannons Fade

A mother’s weeping, rivers forged from bruises,

Each droplet bears a name, a spectral tale,

Her hands, once cradling laughter, now in the sink,

As warmth dissolves like echoes, frail and faded.

The world grows hard,

As shadows stretch and vibrant hues turn expired.

the city’s heartbeat, a clock with shattered hands,

where children play with whispers of despair,

Their giggles blend with echoes of demands,

Men marched asleep - many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind,

Knees trembling, gasping of the winds of fate,

till on the haunting hill they turn their backs,

And trudge toward rest, their weary souls sedate.

When Cannons Fade

Drunk with exhaustion, deaf to the cruel blaze

Of words like daggers, cutting deep, unkind,

Struggling to fit the masks of love and pain,

But someone still is screaming in delusion,

floundering like a specter lost in fog,

Dim through the foggy panes and murky glow,

As if beneath a sea of emerald dread,

In all my visions, he comes forth, a woe,

He plunges at me, gasping, filled with foreboding,

What tolling bells await those who fall like prey?

Only the monstrous fury of the night

“Quick, love!” - their blossoms the compassion of weary

minds,

And every dusk a curtain drawn with care,

What candles may be lit to guide them home?