Inside the Ambulance

 

As I opened the double doors of the ambulance

I saw five pairs of bare feet 

A waft of stale air brought with it the stench of death

bodies dead for several hours in a hot sun

My heart was racing as I climbed inside

into a cavern of death and mutilation

Bullet wounds which had seeped blood

were now congealed stains, signs of violent deaths

Their faces aghast, distorted with eyes wide open

all wore green military shirts and wizars

I had been instructed to search their broken bodies

to find evidence of identity or future enemy intentions

Gripped by an overwhelming feeling of nausea 

I put my hands inside their pockets

only to feel the lifeless cadavers of young men

Drops of my perspiration fell on their faces

somehow irreligious and disrespectful

These sons, brothers, cousins and nephews

grandchildren who had been loved now lay

inert with the breath of life extinguished

I found nothing except for belts of ammunition

no positive identification save their disfigured appearance

Hours before they patrolled the nearby hill country

Then, ambushed they fell in a hail of gun fire

Lives taken, never to return, sacrificed in a cause

with the mark of liberation to stain their lifeless hearts