When blood blends with grit

that's an end to it. 

Hope dies in the sand

 

while the fingers of dead hands

reach out to the blast of bombs

while another world looks on

 

weighing up expediency

decisions far greater yet no nobler

than mere life or death. 

 

These are easily measured by the mile

under the eyes and ears of drones - 

in the meantime

 

while blood blends with grit

that seems to the ABC

and the XYZ of it.