Splinters of light breaking from beams
Outside in the crouched cold an army waits
To pick up it’s feet again
taking harvests
of harm to the chapel.
Calm walls crack under the weight
Of all this expectation,
Men dug in, women aloof
And the shattered sounds of children
Taking violence in echo
"This is how it works" says the priest
Relieved of his duties by shells
Breaking like beams of light.