The Ballad of Alchemy

A poem set within a war bound land. Written in a Ballad form with a twist in form.

 

The Ballad of Alchemy

 

The crescent moon sat in the night

and watched the British Corps,

bright spirits of humanity,

lie dying on the shore.

 

Every body pierced with bullets

Every face marked with woe.

What terror did these young men see?

Their foe's will only know.

 

Young men put down on foreign grounds.

The sombre silence broke,

Fore iron blood met silver light

It rose from sulphur smoke.

 

A ghostly shape, made mad by man,

stared down upon the dead.

His corpse rest next to friend and foe,

not hearing what was said:

 

We are cannibals!

Oh we are

animals of a base nature

robbing mothers of sons

son’s suns songs

no songs of innocence here

my body is brittle and cold

lead shells are my only source of heat

my blanket

A deathbed for all races

If peace is at the finish line, we are all

 dead last!

 

I am here

Am I not?

My weightless hand harbours madness

Docking my rage at a stranger’s land.

The worlds gone mad

Mad Mad Minds

pay no mind

I took a life for Elizabeth after all!

no cost 

no reward but

 the ethereal

Truth never escaping from 

calcium cages!

The fear is real.

 

Duty is mad

Dad is mad

Mum is mad

Owen is right.

guns gore glory

Britannia rules the waves!

Ships of the dead.

On a sea of bloodshed.

And I am lost adrift

weightless. 

 

A life for a life 

an equivalent exchange

no change, only profit

lining imperial wallets.

In their coats

ties

cases

Lynching the lot of us.

Our bodies rot,

our souls trapped

in their philosopher’s stone.

 

The moon dipped down, the sun rose up,

Spirits faded away.

The anguished cries of shackled souls,

Silenced by bullet spray.

Author's Note

Taken a while but let me know what you think.