A Simple Sacrifice

[Stephen Whiteside]

A Simple Sacrifice

"Run!" I said. "Run! I will keep them at bay."
I didn't know what else to do or to say.
He met my gaze briefly - an instant, no more.
The stakes were the highest. We both knew the score.
He still had a chance if he left right away,
And I did my best to create a delay.
Then he turned on his heel, and he fled like a deer,
While I planned an action to shore up his rear.
I took a position behind an old tree
And loaded my weapons methodically.
The first man arrived. He was wary. Alone.
I took careful aim, and he dropped like a stone.
A couple then came, and I took them both out,
Though one, as he fell, gaze an agonised shout.
Next came a handful. I blazed at them all.
A blow to my chest made me stagger and fall.
My left arm was useless but still, with my right,
I picked up my gun and continued the fight.
They hid in the lee of a shallow, rough bluff.
Already, perhaps, I had managed enough.
My life was now forfeit. I knew I was done,
But what man would not do as much for his son?

Stephen Whiteside 15.03.2013

[Maureen K Clifford]

Brave man - I liked this Stephen although confess until I got to the last line I was seeing a soldier in the jungles of Vietnam

[Stephen Whiteside]

Thanks, Maureen. Just some fictitious battle in some fictitious setting.

[Neville Briggs]

hmm. Unusual.

[alongtimegone]

Another good one Stephen. Like Maureen, the last line surprised but I wasn't thinking soldiers, I was thinking more Schwarzenegger.
Wazza