Bus wheels eat the dawn light
Film can rattles in my coat
Craters bloom like black flowers
Shutter snaps the broken road
Mud sucks deep at boot heels now
Steel pot rests where head was bowed
Flash won't reach this hollow ground
Only thunder makes a sound
Helmet in the mud sits still
Artillery sings from distant hill
Camera clicks the silence loud
Hope burns bright beneath the cloud
Tin cup cold with morning rain
Letters burn in pocket flame
Buddy's dog tag hangs on twine
This war don't know no space or time
Mud sucks deep at boot heels now
Steel pot rests where head was bowed
Flash won't reach this hollow ground
Only thunder makes a sound
Helmet in the mud sits still
Artillery sings from distant hill
Camera clicks the silence loud
Hope burns bright beneath the cloud
Darkroom smells like iodine
Prints dry slow on wooden line
Faces blur in grain and gray
War don't look the same today
No medals pinned on cardboard chests
Just children playing in the nests
Of shell holes filled with rain and sky
Where poppies learn to never die
Helmet in the mud sits still
Artillery sings from distant hill
Camera clicks the silence loud
Hope burns bright beneath the cloud
Train whistle cuts the pines at dusk
Rolls past trenches rust and husk
I'll shoot frames till film runs out
Then walk home a different route
Helmet in the mud sits still
Artillery sings from distant hill
Camera clicks the silence loud
Hope burns bright beneath the cloud
Helmet in the mud sits still
Artillery sings from distant hill
Shutter closes on the ridge
Thunder fades behind the bridge
Footprints fill with morning light
