No Man’s Land

Earth geysers in fire
Smoke
And rage
Like hell itself
Clawing
To get out.
Rock and clods of earth rain
With a hail of metal shards
Powder and cordite.

The ground tastes sweet
The grass delicate
Trapped
In no man’s land.
But terror rises like bile
At the back of my throat
And I would trade places
With the poorest beggar
The most afflicted leper
For five minutes
Away from this living grave.
My fingernails scratch
The earth
In a vain effort
To stay attached to the planet.
My body rises with every
Concussive blast.

Zipping above
Ballistic bees
Buzz from behind and ahead.
If I wished to die
I had but to raise my head.

No man’s land
Is not the place for
Any man.

No man’s land
Is a place
Where a man loses control
Of his bowels
His mind
And heart.

No man’s land
Is a place
Where a man screams
For his mother
And promises God anything
For one more moonrise
One more sunrise

One more heartbeat.

Be content to be anywhere
The coldest tundra
The lip of the hottest volcano
Be extremely happy to be anywhere
Other than
No man’s land.