Sand and heat and dust and sweat

White hot sun scorches from a copper sky

Weapons loaded, armour fixed… and yet

Will it be me? I don’t want to die.

 

Approaching car crawls through the road block

Windscreen cracked, it’s a wreck on wheels

Thumping explosion, I fly with the shock

Of blast and debris, land in a field

 

All is numb, no feeling, no sound

I taste grit, feel weak, then hear a shout

“Medic – he’s down here on the ground!”

“Don’t move mate, you’re OK – soon have you out”.

 

My face is scorching in the sun, my helmet gone

Cool water on my lips, a sharp stab in the arm

Sand and sun and sound become as one

This is it for me “I’ve bought the farm”.

 

Blazing heat and sweat and dust now in the past

Camo’ clad medics with headphones tend me

My mates, still there, survived the blast

I sleep with the vision just a memory.

 

Awakened by the hoot of owl, I’m cold.

White clad nurses and a crisp white sheet

A tented bed, my body aches. Am I old?

I reach down but can’t find my feet.

 

The cool, green gentle swaying trees

Lowing cows, a horse that whinnies

Fight back those vicious memories

Is this how it was meant to finish?

 

Long gone are sun and filth and sand

Reality dawns as the facts unfurled

My new legs arrive and I try to stand

Green is the colour of my brave new world