Combat Eyes
It lurks behind their eyes,
Where the soul used to live.
Eyes, which have seen too much
of war’s bad places.
Where reality is too far
Beyond human comprehension
Beyond human reasoning
Beyond human sanity.
The nether world
of death and carnage,
Flash-burned and sealed
in a fixed dimension
of atrocities bordered by
unspeakable horror
That forever scars the psyche,
Everlastingly searing moments
That eternally burns too bright.
The black vagueness of the eyes
Gazes through you,
Now past and far beyond.
Without judging,
Without emotion,
Without compassion,
Without mercy,
Without humanity,
They stare, dead and blank,
unfocused and vague,
Knowing everything,
Fixed on Nothing,
Mirroring the soul.
Welcome Home.
– Curtis D. Bennett