~ By Courtesy of Others ~
Truth of Blood
Half alive I walk the world
Going through the motions
Waiting for chance to come
For the bitter blood to flow.
When the steel is drawn
Does Odin come
And fill my soul with rage
The howling wolf to slake his thirst
In the bitterness of blood.
Only in the direst need,
For my nation, or for my own
Tell myself I hate the need
But the truth I surely know.
When death comes swift
Does Odin come
And fill me with his skill
To match my will with death herself
And win life from the blood.
I hope to never need my skills,
I say, and thus I lie
For the truth is smiling through the blood
In the battle come alive.
Half alive I walk the world
Like a sword restless in sheath
Dreaming of the next time drawn
Of the blood and sweet release.
© John T Mainer, 17
February 2007
Image: © Anke-Katrin Eißmann