Pale Moon / is an ice-sword / in the grey midnight
The Skull-God mutters / bringing forth exploding oracles —
broken BONES Code / for all //

My comrades are gone / in the trenches /
Scarlet-rain / loop in my mind /
Daily rerun / laugh-track / of Skull-God /

Some move as bats / blinded by enemy gas-kisses
fumbling to offer / their dirty heads / as round gifts
to the Skull-God / for the new year /

A black Christmas /

   The cruel stage of / the Skull-God alone.
In this endless dark winter /
he comes as furious as / a lion’s claw / breaking lives in the snow //

Some of the blood / from younger warriors
burst like mad-moths / splattering everywhere

Children's eyes / are limpid / or / already blind
like small newborn fish / in a tank
unaware of how / the Skull-God / plays his terrible ruin’s game
Every single person / is a piece on his board

The wounded survivors return / their broken minds / facing the sky
unable to think / why wars begin
why they end / I don’t know

We always forge    t / unable to reassemble the shattered self /
The Skull-God always nears / smiling death’s smile
Peace is always absen   t /
and
the moon — a tempered sword — in the sky
impales
my heart //