Spilling of Life

a poem that describes the realities of war

it ran freely across hills
soaked the ground
dark crimson streams
fresh from battle
sizzled with body heat

it poured
from dying and dead
women, children
young, old,
black, white

stink and waste,
pain, strife,
the pinnacle
of man's inhumanity
to man

She slipped
fell to her knees
smeared life gone
over hands, hair
face and body

Now she was
one of the lost
part of her family
but she breathed
they did not

She screams,
"Why, God?"

Her words echo
back to her
for she is all alone
in the graveyard
on the last day.

By Kathie Stehr