The Casualties Of War

The casualties of war are the zeros
that never exist in history

but I remember when

the sister embraced her younger brother
as they sat upon the porch,
La Vita a Bella playing softly
from a cheap radio,
with nothing but a blanket
to protect them from the bombs,
to protect them from the soldiers.

The sun set crimson in the east,
reflected her blood and his
all over the road

and the guns were as empty
as the eyes of the soldiers
whose boots were stained forever
with the mark of Cain
from the blood of the innocent.