Dead To Me Poem by Ben Bergeth

I am walking in a mine field
a twenty-five pound metal detector
gripped in my hands
as if my life is wrapped around the handle.

A friend on my left
a friend on my right
both walking with me
as if they had confidence

Each step is taken
with sure steady hesitance
not wanting to move an inch forward
but a mile backward

I freeze.
A shiver down my spine
As if the devil himself
were breathing down my neck

A man drops to my left
shot through the head
A man drops to my right
several wounds through the heart

Dark.
I dropp to my knees
shock sets in
I have been shot.

My heart is aching
my head is spinning
still spinning like a top
like a broken carousel.

Those men are me
fallen like all the rest
before them
dead to me.