Elfriede Mollon

Recondite Scourge

He was one

But his name was legion

Deployed in regions

Of raging destruction

The hungry fire of patriotism

A burning liquid in his blood

Ingested death

In camouflage

He came home

Bearing tight-fitting battlefield souvenirs

Demons of surreptitious ambush

Like thorns perforating body and soul

Viseclamping their stranglehold

A little more each day

Invidiously

Insidiously

There are rats

Nesting in their stronghold

Of thorny bougainvillea --

Hungry and gullible

They seek out the poison cake

Camouflaged in green

Tomorrow

It will strangle them.

Elfriede Mollon © 2010