Burdens

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A thousand graves I have helped dig.
A gruesome soldier's dreams I dream.
A thousand caskets carried home
To feed the weeds that sprout and teem.

I'd do it all ten times over
To turn the days back, stop this one.
A burden borne for a true brother,
A grisly task I just wished done.

A tearful burden, quite unique.
Alone I carried to the grave,
The heaviest of caskets made,
The grief followed me like a wave.

I do not blame him, not one bit.
Were he mine, I would fall short.
We stood by him as he shed tears,
Silent, grieving, for support.

Alone I carried him. Alone.
A burden borne I'll not forget.
The image seared into my mind,
It all prepared, the torch just lit.

The smallest pyres burn the brightest.
The shortest caskets weigh the most.
The youngest losses so severe,
A truth acknowledged coast to coast.

The fiery roar, the crackling wind,
The only sounds that pierce the night.
A band of brothers, naught but grief,
A memory cast by firelight.

The strongest memory I have.
The strongest that I ever will.
I see him when I close my eyes,
I hear the roaring pyre still.

A night that I'll not soon forget.
A night that haunts this waking dream.
A burnden borne for a family
Forever torn along its seam.

Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Glacian, in the year 729 AF.