Before the War and After the Battle( The Conversation)
This is a conversation between Lizabeth and her fiancee Leo before he goes to war.
Leo- "Do real men run?
Though strong men cry.
Live is not honorable til
real men die."
Liz- "Yeah and Pride and Bravery are
the closest companions of fools. They
blind each side like a horse's bridle
to obscure what's going on around them."
Leo- "You talk with the tongue of the enemy.
Though his sword be made steel, your words
cuts much deeper."
When he departed he was furious. The next day he
went to battle and was wounded. He lay there all night
going in and out of consciousness. She came walking
among the dead and dying that morning fearing what
she might find. When she heard his faint voice she ran to him.
Leo- "Pride and Bravery have both fled
but O how good it is for the eyes to
see thee O Sun whose beauty lights the inner soul.
And though darkness has come to close my eyes forever...
Your light inside,
A paradise is..."
Leo- "O how your words ring true now in what you said.
I now know that...
Life and Death sit at opposite ends
To caress our cheeks like the passionate wind.
And if man like me should turn west
Will the masses think us fools at our rest?"
He then took his finger and drew a circle
on the ground in blood and said with his
last breath,
"With this ring I thee wed."
But before she could answer he died.
She then looked to the skies and said,
"Should I answer the heavens
though I sit among hell."
Her answer came that night in the
form of a hard rain that drenched
the earth and washed the circle away.
copyrights 2006
Robert Anthony James
Before the War and After the Battle( The Conversation)