Castaways

By shadowing
All the darkened fields
Of forgotten words
And civilian lives
Violence
Through the changing guards
Through the grinding away
And their furious marching
By gathering the holy light
And weathering

A castaway life
And the rising fear
The hollowness
Of the flags and gods
That are raised in the air
In the wake of their raging
Your skinny arms

Hold the lantern up
On the brightest array
Of the stars in their moorings
And summoning
The holy light down
On citadels

The blackening sky
Collapsing sun
The burning wall
That approaches our eyes
You live again
In the shuddering light
These images
This valediction
You are running from
A rising tide
You are castaways