The Commander

This War was righteous, there was no escaping that.

They had destroyed everything he loved.

They had taken his life and stripped it from all its worth.

Ever since the conflict began, the country had been split in two:

“The Glorious Revolutionary Army” and “The King’s Men”; both 

sides absolutely sure of their virtue and their reasons for fighting.

As the hostilities escalated, the land they so fervently fought for

had suffered the ravages of war and was almost unrecognizable,

its green fields scorched and its magnificent cities razed to the ground.

There were some who resisted this call to war however and, as the years

went by, some groups emerged which called for a ceasefire in an attempt

to, as they had put it, “save this land from its own people” but with their

limited influence and the unquenchable thirst for justice and retribution

both sides felt, there was no real chance of an armistice.

The hours before dawn were coming to an end and the camp had began

to stir. As his Captains went over the battle plans one last time,

the Commander surveyed the horizon that separated both armies and

felt a sudden calm washing over him. This was it, the final battle, what everything

had been building towards. Millions would die, yes, but the cause was just and

victory was within reach.

The Captains excused themselves to oversee the final preparations for the

march at dawn as a private entered the Commander’s tent with an urgent

letter from the High Command. He took the envelope and dismissed the soldier with

a wave of his hand. What could be so important in these last crucial moments

before the final battle? He wondered.

  

As a wave of disgust and rage washed over him he read the short message contained

in the letter over and over again. “Peace”, “Negotiations”, “Cease-Fire”. The words

sticking in his throat and refusing to go down. This was unacceptable, unthinkable,

there could never be peace with those monsters, those animals.

The first lights of the morning dawned on the horizon 

echoing the light emanating from the burning letter.

The battle would go on, the fight would be won.

They had taken his life and stripped it from all its worth.

They had destroyed everything he loved.

This War was righteous, there was no escaping that.

Contra Dicción

Duermo entre pesadillas, vivo entre sueños

Pies sobre arena movediza y cabeza en las nubes

Con lengua suelta y pesas en el estómago

Ojos abiertos y sentimientos cerrados

Con sonrisa amplia y garganta estrecha

Deseos grandes y corazón pequeño

Con risa resonante

y lágrimas invisibles

Through the Ice

It was all white, as far as the eye could see; Ice under his feet, clouds over his head.

He started moving though the ice, the skates cutting into it and propelling him forward. The going was hard, the ice was riddled with holes, big enough for his whole body to go through them. Reflecting pools of freezing water. 

After a few meters, he fell through one of them and found himself suddenly surrounded by darkness, the brightness from the world disappeared, seemingly incapable to penetrate the water under the ice. He struggled to get out, to get back to the surface, the icy water clinging to his clothes, to his skin, like hundreds of hands pulling him down, away from the light.

He climbed out and kept going, only to fall again, and again, and again. Each time he was sure he would drown, each time he thought he wouldn’t be able to climb out, each time he was even tempted to surrender to the darkness and stop struggling against the black water pulling him down. But he kept climbing out, he kept moving forward.

He wasn’t sure where he was going but he knew he had to keep moving. As he advanced though, he found the holes in the ice were further and further apart, climbing out proved less difficult and the water didn’t seem as cold as before, the light seeping more and more into the darkness.

He continued on, the holes were rare now, and less terrible to face. He glanced back from time to time as he still had no idea where he was heading but, at the same time, he knew he was moving towards the only way that made sense, the only way he could go.

Forward.