Beautiful

How beautiful 

Are the bodies

Held together with 

The finest string

Just holding on

By a thread

Barely still 

Holding it together

Living 

With 

a body filled 

with death 

Loving 

With a decaying heart

So bruised it’s painful

To feel it beating

In their chest

Wounds wide open

Insides exposed

They take a needle

And sew themselves together

Looking in at those

Who are whole

Happy

Like a kid outside

A shop window

Thinking they will never be

Part of the world

With the living

Flesh hanging off

Bones held in place

With sellotape

And glue

They walk

They survive

Barely holding it

Together

Wounds invisible

To all but their

Fellow soldiers 

Wounded 

But still breathing 

How much beauty

In those who it

Hurts to face the day

Yet they do

Broken 

Until they can’t even 

Feel

Yet they try to 

Love

And reach out

Despite 

Because of

The pain