The Black Dogs of War

What do you hear 
as you lay in your bed?
The sounds of your childhood?
Or darkness instead?
A life filled with happiness, 
sorrow or joy?
A blast from the distance,
Once more you deploy.

The arid dead sand
cloys the breath that you need.
The stifling heat
hampers strength that you’ll bleed.
The weight of the world
hangs upon those young arms.
All semblance of peace
disappears through alarms.

Your training kicks in
as your life takes a turn.
You hear the machine guns
and watch houses burn.
The smell of the flesh 
as it’s seared from the bone.
The sight of the children
who’re bombed from their home.

A barking wild dog
brings you back to the now.
A voice in your ear
breaks the sweat from your brow.
With maddening howls
of the battle ahead,
Your soul fills with fear,
and the quickening dead.

A salvo of heat
breaks the gunshots report.
Through watery eyes
you see bodies contort.
You’ll still never know
what has caused their demise.
Once again sounds of death
seems to block out the skies.

You find yourself back
in your own room tonight.
Your sweat and your screams
hold the Demons you fight.
So what do YOU hear 
when you lay in your bed?
The sounds of your childhood?
Or darkness instead?