My death

 PFC Blake Edward Carsten…..”He’s not here sir.”

Pain shatters my body like an avalanche,

Grips my throat and chokes me.

I can’t breathe

Tears cascade from my eyes

Leaving ugly lines down my pink cheeks.

Taps ring out, piercing the silence in the air

Each gunshot rips my heart apart

So this is what it feels like?

Heartbreak

I feel like a stranger among my family

Vulnerable and exposed like my feelings are written across my body

You’re gone

I watch as they lower the cherry coffin six feet down,

Trying not to jump in after you

Save you from this hell hole,

But my feet won’t work

I’m planted like a statue, haunting your grave

I squeeze your dog tags and turn to walk away,

Holding all I have left of you in a white-knuckle grasp, I whisper

Love never fails