The Fire

The fetid stench of burning flesh
Fills the midnight air.
The fiery pits of human bodies
Brighten the night like so many suns.
This horror, this catastrophe
Could not be avoided.

And as we sit around the fire
And enjoy the smell of our fallen comrades,
I think back and wonder why,
Why did we not do this before,
Why did this game,
Not cross the minds of those now burning.

For this is a game,
A game called life.
Where the strong live, the weak die,
And all others in between,
Suffer for it.

But at the end of this game called life,
There will be another great fire,
The one to consume us all.
It will brighten the world, for days at a time,
And then,
There is nothing.