In a hostile land,

With trickles of red,

and thirty-six more, dead.

For line after line,

Is drawn in the sand,

giving more reason to the misery of man.

For there are lessons to be learned,

from this most improbable plan.

while still more innocent children burn.

from the deadly spiraling sand.

Yet with so many points to prove,

We have nothing to lose…

So onward we march

Into this desolate land,

Offering our finest young men

to deaths ravenous hand.

for day after intolerable day,

Young men’s dreams fade away.

Fading…fading, quickly into the night,

departing forever with no future in sight.

With death no longer the enemy they fight,

But their partner in this specious plight.

So pray today,

that truth will find its way

and that we soon will learn

how much the spiraling sands

can truly burn.

 J. Allen Wilson © 2004