COLDNESS
The orders come in - anticipation plants the seed,
The coldness rises in mind and in deed,
Fear gives way to something altogether new,
Something less describable, but something ever so true,
Hardened, waiting and imbued with deadly purpose,
Something else inside slowly scatters like dust,
The waiting continues, but the blow doesn't come,
The coldness wells up with nowhere to run,
The battle ends before it began,
Today death has pardoned this man,
Slowly unwinding the coldness ebbs away into the night,
The sun long since gone and faded from sight,
You lie awake; lie awake so still,
Trying to get back what the coldness had killed,
You scream and you cry but you won't be the same,
Because somewhere inside the coldness remains.