Kiss Of Death

• Tyler Wilson, Grade 12, Wollondilly Anglican College
• Poetry
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Beyond Words 2015' competition

His breath was fierce like stinging ice,
With brittle hands and trembling lips
Crisp air pierced his tender flesh
Before a bullet ever did.
An eager boy of only 19
Entered the fields beside his brothers
With rookie hopes of soon returning
a man, home to sisters, wives and mothers.
But they are now a slave to warfare
With blood their boots are sodden
Marching trenches for the flag
Under which no soldier went forgotten.
Here it came; the kiss of death
As his finger pricked the trigger
With a restless cloud of blood and shrapnel
He saluted fallen diggers.