Poem 'Hardcore'

Hardcore

Bullet and bomb blasted brick and concrete,

a city hollowed from the landscape.

The ragged buildings canyon the roads heaped

with the shattered litter of munitions waste.

From the chilled sky a crouched shape which is no one

but on the ground is a real man;

skin like paper pulled hard against the bone beneath.

Hands made hard by digging, eyes dulled.

Enduring the endless search for life against the weight

of crushing gravity.

Rag-dolled, limp and lost.