Dice tumble from the tower of reason,
shattering lives and illusions
with indiscriminate ease;
men, women, friends and lovers
forced to play a fateful game
of impossible, inevitable odds.

Acts of uncompromising heroism,
born out of necessity and discipline,
driven by a will greater than our own,
fire men from the safety of their kin,
elevating them above the humanity
they profess to represent.

News filters into our consciousness
like sand into sights –
obscuring in its overwhelming clarity –
while rhetoric, applauded and derided,
seeps through the cracks
of the bloodied ledger.

The indelible stamp of history,
Justifying, celebrating, betraying
This generation to the next.