Soldiers Fear Revisited Poem by Gordon D Wilkinson

Heavy fast breathing
Perspiring a waterfall
Stinging the unblinking eyes
Staring intensely into the blackness
Pulsating veins
Quickening to a roar
Flinching at every movement
Alert to alien sounds
Difficult to decipher in the terrain
Click
A twig cracking in the stillness
Was it animal or human noise?
Croaking of the distant bullfrog
So much noise
More than normally heard from the blackness
Knowing they are creeping closer
Expecting the barrels flash
A glaring split second light
Announcing the attack
Stomach knotted with the fear of battle
A fear, which vanishes with a rush of adrenalin
Accentuating everything
Body trembling ready to spring
Hour after unforgiving hour
Until dawns nimble fingers weave in the brightness of day
At last able to breathe again
Stretch the numbed legs
As the call to move sounds
Concentration wavers
The explosive tip rips deep into the chest
Too late
As life ebbs with barely a twitch
Staining blood red the green carpet of complacency
Ambusher becomes the ambushed
Lifeless eyes no longer see
The sounds vanish into oblivion