(First place: Senior High)

Lonely Saints

By Andrew Avery

Surrounded by the lingering scent of sweat

We trudge on through the mud

Around us, the clattering of turrets' roar

Excitement runs through our veins

For none of us know our final destination.

(First place: Junior High)

Abandoned

by Kelsey Green

I put one last fictitious smile on my soft and tender face.

My lips stained a deep flaming red.

Dressed as modest and solemn as I can look.

An army wife requires heels as high as the statue of Liberty.

An ironed dress with meticulous curls in my fine hair.

I play my part to look pretty for the perfect picture.

This maybe the final time my companion will lay his precious eyes on my rosy colored face.

Home feels abandoned when he leaves to defend our country.

I don’t endorse the job but I am honored.

The time he gets home goes by like a flash of blazing lightning.

The touch of his tender hand was the finest hand I ever touched.

It will always be that way until the day he doesn’t return home.

(Runner up: Senior High)

The Battle

By: Bethany Vardy

We walk along these muddy trenches; tired;

Our bodies, aching from bloodshot wounds.

We look all around us and we see bloody gashes,

All over the people who fought,

Who were our friends and stood by our sides until the end;

Their end; of their journey.

Some say our lives are easy- but they wouldn't know.

We've gone for days, months- what seems like forever,

With no showers. We smell like sewer.

Our beds; we lay in, imagining home; and the touch;

The touch of her soft skin around me. It gives me goose bumps

As I remember her and my children.

It makes me homesick.

I wait, here with my partners; strangers; Just to get out of this nightmare; To get to a better place- where I can breathe, Fresh air instead of soggy mud.

It's only a matter of time before the end; The end of my journey - can be determined.

(Runner up: Senior High)

Fear in the Eyes of the Sacred

by Jonathan Cooper

The cry of the surrendering foe

The shadow of the death that walks below us

The empty shells of lost lovers

The feeling of doing something useful for my devoting country

The battle cry of the rising to defeat our enemy

(Runner up: Junior High)

Shadows of War

by Brandy Murphy

Poppies lie in a silent field

Late in the darkness of night

They dance in the wind

And play with the stars

Honouring the warriors' plight

The foot soldiers and horse men,

Brave sea fighters and pilots

Resting in shadows of war

Always waiting, watching, wanting

Awakening peace evermore.

Deprivation

 by Erin Whalen

Barbed wire, muddy boots, depressed faces,

All signs of being defeated

Trapped on the wrong side, forced to be helpless and alone

While others are risking their lives for us

The stench of blood, gun powder, and filthy unshowered men,

Burned our noses like ammonia

Inside

by Kyle Petten
 

The fences are as sharp as broken glass

The soldiers who control us are phony freaks

They don’t heed us, let alone feed us

Outside the walls the war continues, bang! boom!

The smell burned the hairs as it entered our nostrils

Gone, gone, gone. Our lives are gone.

Mortar men

By Jason Major

The war is hard. The sorrows are cold.

The mortar men are firing “boom” goes the bunker all of the men are groaning and moaning.

The helicopters are whirling and hurling bullets of blood “boom” goes the helicopter parts go flying.

All the guys’ hearts skip a beat. The civilians are screaming.

The snipers are aiming “bang bang” Down goes a runner and a machine gunner.

There is blood and guts everywhere people are turned into a scene of puking spurts.

Chunks of undigested rations’ every were.

A New Life to Experience

By: Jillian Vardy

The crisp fall leaves circled the air softly,

With the chilly autumn breeze.

A new season,

A new beginning.

Instead of hearing “bang, bang”,

It was quiet with peace, but loud with laughter.

Wives danced cheerfully as the fight ended,

A calming sensation entered their restless minds.

Joyful tears like waterfalls,

Streamed down their no longer lonely faces.

War through the opponents' eyes

by Matthew Latham

Soldiers were running into the fight,

Knowing they may never come out alive.

The bullets flew by like streaks of lightning

Just missing me and hitting my friends.

There were many more of them,

We knew we stood no chance.

When we came upon a trench,

Me and my fellow teammates dove in.

We all said our goodbyes and reloaded our guns,

Someone popped there head up,

And he was shot in a instant.

Eventually I was sitting alone

Thinking to myself,

Will I ever make it home?

Then the enemies came in,

Then I knew right there and then,

We would never win.