WAR Poem: VENCERE AUT MORI, by Tayyiba Jadoon

Slumped and etched into your memory,
You were a swan in a pool of blood—that did not belong to you
It’s magnificent thus inevitable

Blood
Bathes
Broken
Bodies,

Brutally
Butchered
Beneath
Blackened
Beams

Veins of betrayal coursed over the fallen in a crimson sea, Held captive of the souls draped in the scene.

Dug inside yourself witnessing the ecstasy of mourning and weeping, them. Since the chords and strings accord with the selves own self

Passion
Perpetually
Puzzles me

And,
Prickles my
Patience
Poisoned to
Perfection

My lungs rise and fall, emerging ashes to smitten flames.
Sins of the flesh decide one’s fate, o’ fall through the chorus of chaos slipping past the ending trials that scream,
‘Vencere aut mori’, Conquer or die