Das Unbedingte

watching from a distance 
  the strangeness of their fate 
  their deaths put my life to shame 
  but we?  do we feel ashamed? 
  are we ugly with grief? 

  honour me 
  savagely 
  a dead youth 
  a sacred fever 
  a chest still swollen with hope 
  feed these lands with dead men 
  we serve their cult in secret 
  our hearts are heavy 
  our sense of sin 
  from a distant impossible past 
  we sing the love of danger 
  of unconditional loyalty 
  of blind devotion? 

  this is not a time for silence