Dragging The Dead Through Mountain Passes

Bodies pile high
Mangled by machinegun fire
Dying with hands clenched
To spines of barbed wire
Wade through warm innards
A mist of sanguine fog
A ditch of fresh remains
Consumed by an honourable end

Only mud, snow, and guts
Come back in a strecher
Only identifier
A burnt dogtag
Dragging the dead
Through a mountain pass
Blood of forgotten heros
Spills down the avalanche

Collect unburied dead
Counter attack, fortify positions
Mined ice caverns
Sulphourous dust, noxious fumes
Bring forth artillery
Creating the craters, exposing infantry
Take the summit
No retreat, heavy casualties

Comrade, mutilated remains
Smoke, roaring cannons
Iron, shrapnel wounds
Frozen, corpses in ice

Blood, crystallized
Poems, an epitaph
Valour, unbridled courage
Nation, noble sacrifice

Dragging the dead through mountain passes