leading to nowhere,
linking one corpse to another,
sinking into muck,
lost and forgotten,
peeking through the surface,
rotting away,
leaving only slivers behind.

No longer raised high,
providing safe passage...

Cluttering the ground,
tripping men in their tracks,
all sense of purpose gone.

Once a means forward,
pushing higher ground,
a path to victory,
just beyond the next trench...

That promise shattered,
shrapnel scattered across the field,
as the splinters beneath our feet.

*Inspired by the symbolic Western Front poppy field located in the National WWI Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.