Day 2 - 1.28.13

Prompt for: January 28, 2013
Subject or Theme: The Art of War (or some aspect of war and your opinion on it)
Word(s) to Include: equivalent
Forbidden Word(s): (none)
Additional Parameters: Minimum 16 lines of your opinion (poetically, of course).

Lone Soldier


We played at war
with a dead stick gun,
yelling bang and then we’d run.
The dying would fall
in exaggerated mimicry--
what we envisioned
the equivalent of Death would be.
We’d lie frozen for the five minutes required
before we could rise from the dead;
to be killed again or kill instead.
I remember dead-time lasting forever
while the game played on.
Once, I fell asleep.
When I awoke, everyone was gone.
They’d all left to go back home,
leaving me there, all alone.
The sunset was blood red that day.
I wondered if that was
what war was like:
being dead
with no one left to play.