My Nightmare

In the cold and dew of August night,
I awoke of dream to such an awful sight,
I screamed a sound, but sound there was not,
How does this corpse, putrid and rot,
Continue to live on in this land of fog?
Squeal of Pig and Bark of Dog...
Is life nothing more than allegory and pain?
Can you like I, stand tall amid the corpses and rain?

In a dark, and moonless night, there was none
But fog and war, none but oil and life undone...
Can one really presume to exist amongst these ashes?
The Butterfly has Burned and the Star no longer Flashes,
Why does this land smell of sulfur and bleach...?
I see the one who can save me, but so far out of reach...
I try to run but my legs have been cut from beneath me...
My eyes have been punctured and I can no longer see,
Why do I feel the hot breath of heaven upon my neck?
What happened amidst this train wreck?

As I bleed out and the life fades from my brain,
Another force within me does begin to drain...
I cannot awake from My Nightmare, though I once tried...
Now as I cry and bleed and scream, the Earth has sighed...
What can remove me from this Nightmare? What can I save?
Listen, toward the West, do I hear the sounds of a Tidal Wave?
Wash me from this Earth, remove me of my pain...now...
I cannot fear the cleansing of this place, but...how?
Gunfire and Machinery, Boom and Bang...
How the song of freedom so boldly sang...
From the West, from the North, the South and East,
Here have they come to tame this Beast...

Awake from My Nightmare, there is no longer much to fear,
I now have what I need, but why does it not feel near?
A lot happened on that fateful day...
You're so close, yet so far away...

This is My Nightmare, and from it I cannot escape...

-s.r.petros