no man's land

you slip through the cracks
between tight clasped fingers,
evading my every move.

nothing you leave
but vanishing hope,
left withering, grasping, fool.

unquenchable thirst
yields perishing leaves,
unripened the fruit now dies.

mere memory's rains
of bountiful life
dehydrate against the orb

of phosphorous gas
that scorches the earth,
depriving all wish divine.

traveled, i searched
across gates forbid,
identity burned its flag

by scaling the walls
that caressed jagged barbs
embracing the mines you laid.

where angels turned back
and devils throw watch
presiding on rusty tanks,

here naked i stand,
wait fury and fire,
exposing myself to you.

casting my gaze
upon soft pastel
sinewy peaks that roll,

all vibrance laid waste
the beauty of death,
mere carcass of glory gone.

desolate tribes
are all that remain,
nomadic across the sky,

whose feet touch the ground
to suckle bare dirt,
expecting relief unmet.

the wait was in vain
you never did come
ignoring my pleas so sweet.

so onward did tread
with head downward, bent,
defeated, i left your side.