Veterans Day: Blood-stained Fields

Blood-stained tracks in borrowed fields

sacrificial steps etched in ageless grooves

deep imprints nurtured by posterity

but covered by contemporary silts

that blur marching soles in their prime.

Suborned minds twisted on grainy reel

cut in the silent winds, now destiny's still,

traced  on the nation's template

then sodded with layers of time

re-cultivated by each passing generation

each, hybrid cloak straining the essence

of  languid souls lingering in death's shadow.

Transient limbs far from home

harnessed to their country's millstone

then sheared from hearts bleating red

ghostly outlines blossom in their stead

in Nature's, cyclical wake shed ageless dreams.

Wild flowers annually bloom to

memorialize strains of innocence

fertilized by streams of pristine blood

forever regenerated on Nature's wheel.