Two Wars - This Or The Apocalypse

Of all the wars you’ve fought

Which one is etched along your headstone

Bygone, remote, and cast aside?

Did you hold it in your hands every single night?

Did you wash them in the waters of a grave?

Silence in sovereign fleet the hand that dare seize the fire

Struggle to sound above the piercing

Echo trill of this hapless, bloody sigh

Stalking in this fearful symmetry the trail back

To the hammer, the chain, and the furnace

Slowly they will tarnish and break

The tiger utters not his own name

And in triumph, and in glory

Our earth is blackened

In solace do we sing

I’m not ashamed

If blood is what you ask

Then I have nothing to offer

Your ghost is leaving;

it has undone itself

In death they do speak low into our ears

«I've been waiting for this,»

Unchanging