Embedded

It's a burning sensation -
The hot graze of my hands
Slamming against the ground,
Gravel in my palms.

I remember it,
collecting green glass
from the gravestones
as you all cried.

Yew trees hung heavy
Over the premature day.
I gave you a blue bell.
It sat there - fragile -

Before an avalanche
Of earth took it under.

When I saw your nose all red
I felt the gravel in deep.
The slow throb that's almost pleasure
As your brain drugs itself with adrenaline

Things go fuzzy.
These are the things you forget
And turn into nightmares.
I lived in a nightly war zone

Ricocheting from Nuclear war
To death by foxes.
I never remember the way you looked
When you found out.