Gasmask Haunting
(heavy gasmask breathing) Seventeen and the world is on
fire. Seventeen and the mud is my grave.
Cold brass pills
rattling
in my hand,
They tell me
it will make me
a man.
But the shadows
in the sector
are growing tall, And the trenches
are starting
to crawl. Pull the straps tight,
strap the glass to my face,
Only in this canvas am I safe.
Woolen uniform, brass buttons on my chest,
Behind the rubber mask I can rest.
I'm running from the thing that wears my name!
It mimics my voice in the pouring rain!
It cries like a boy,
but its teeth are too long!
Underneath the earth is where we both belong!
It's scraping on the corrugated tin,
It knows my rank,
it knows where I have been.
Please don't let it look through the crack,
I can never go back,
never go back.
It speaks with my mother's tongue!
A monster wearing what I left behind!
Keep the mask on,
keep the breath in!
I can't let it inside!
(heavy breathing) (shivering rattle) Still
safe... in the uniform...