The Song of a Soldier

Thus Said a Child in Gaza::

I love!
Therefore, I hoist the sail of my sword
in the winds of distaste,
in the gales of abhorrence!

I hasten, like hands
unclenching their fists,
opening to the dehiscence of unions!

Thus, I scatter—
like grains of wheat,
like a field bursting into song,
like the melody of birth
through the fife of stalks,
like the hackle of seeds atop golden heights,
like ladders of stalks
shouldering the weight of harvest.

I love!
Therefore, I head toward the shores,
to the volcanoes
erupting through the eyes—
to where cleavings
mark the pulse of heartbeats.

Where storm to storm rages,
where thunder to thunder fury
spirals through my veins.

I love,
and the vines of my wrath
twine around the hedges of time—
until the day my arms unfurl like fountains,
and from the grapes of passion,
cloudbursts pour onto barren fields of torment.

On that day,
truth and triumph
will speak through our hearts,
and the wine of our blood
shall ferment
in the barrels of barbed wires
and bayonets.