Dirty Snow

Radio static cuts.
Wind hacks sideways
through barbed wire.
Hard breathing.
Yeah.
Still.
here.
Section hold.
Whiteout front,
incoming,
down,
down,
crack.
Dirty snow crunched
in my teeth,
still breathing.
Diesel smoke clots my lungs,
still breathing.
Blizzard howls hack the air,
no meaning.
Trek through the ice,
still breathing.
Dirty snow.
Still breathing.
Dirty snow crusted
over frozen grit,
Mortar thump,
ice shards spit and skid.
Diesel chokes
where engines cough black tar,
Smoke drifts thick
through Arctic scar.
Bolt froze stiff
on rifle steel,
Ice in the trigger,
numb fingers peel.
Mechanism jammed from frostbite grip,
Rack it hard,
make the frozen bolt slip.
Section crawls
through drift
and jagged ridge,
Sniper scope on
the iceberg bridge.
Whiteout wind
like a blade across skin,
But the line clutches tight,
we push in.
Dirty snow cracked
in the teeth,
still breathing.
Hands gone numb,
fingers stiff,
still breathing.
Blizzard blinds,
vision split,
no seeing.
Trek through the ice,
still breathing.
Dirty snow.
Still breathing.
Ice cracks loud
under armored tread,
Frozen diesel
where the engines bled.
Spent brass buried half
in drifting white,
Aurora flickers cold
above the fight.
Cracked tooth biting frozen air,
Blood on scarf
but I'm still there.
Magazine sticks in
the winter grind,
Cold steel gnaws
my trigger hand.
Brother slipped
where the ice shelf shattered,
Wind swallowed half the
words he mattered.
No prayers left in
the Arctic gale,
Just hold the line
and never fail.
Dirty snow crunched
and cracked in teeth,
still breathing.
Frozen lungs hack,
still breathing.
Black sky crushes,
no dreaming,
Trek through the ice,
still breathing.
Dirty snow.
Still breathing.
Breathe.
slow.
Don't freeze.
Wind cuts deep.
Still.
move.
Dirty snow crunched
in my teeth,
still breathing.
Frozen lungs hack and clutch,
still breathing.
Blizzard screams,
no mercy,
Trek through the ice,
still breathing.
Dirty snow.
Still breathing.
Blizzard screams
through the shattered mast,
Frozen radio lines
from the nuclear blast.
I've seen the ice
take stronger men,
Seen steel snap
where the winds descend.
Pressure carves what truth reveals,
Only the steady
survive these fields.
If the storm never
lets us go,
We march
through ice
and dirty snow.
Dirty snow cracked
in the teeth,
still breathing.
Hands numb,
lungs frozen,
still breathing.
Black sky above,
no end,
Trek through the ice,
still breathing.
Dirty snow.
Still breathing.
Dirty snow crunched
in the teeth.
still breathing.
Still.
breathing.
Still.
breathing.