Title: 'The Price'
Fandom: Original Poetry
Characters/Pairings: None
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG (mildly disturbing imagery)
Summary: The price to pay is never sweet
Notes: Crossposted to drabblesoup for Challenge #65: The Hounds Of War, and on LiveJournal to beattheblackdog for Challenge #166: Eat


The hounds of war no longer bay
They'll come again some other day
And now the carrion crows will eat
Of what's left of victory and defeat
The price to pay is never sweet

This is the cost of bitter hate
A lesson learned, but learned too late
By those now dead--but never learned
By those who live: A lesson spurned
Those who'd teach it all are burned

It will forever be like this
War offers Death a lover's kiss
This kiss of cruelty tastes of gall
There are no winners--losers all
Those who stand, those who fall