Dustoff

A swamp behind them
A bruise on the earth
Fog swallowing everything
Only ripples where the small things sank
Boots dragging, silence too full to speak
Then a thump, another, air trembling
One of them stops, the other listening
The sound sharpening into blades

Hands waving, voices cracking
Mud up to their knees
Spotlight sweeping like a judgment
Finding them, holding them still
Line drop, hands reach, bodies lifting
Mud falling away
Grass burning, relief like a wound opening
Metal noise, wind noise, engine noise
But it feels like safety
For the first time in too long

Bench seats, helmets clattering
Medic nodding, still alive
Still here somehow
The swamp shrinking, the world burnt black
A painting ruined and left behind
One staring down, I can't believe it
The other, and now silence again
Not heavy, just tired
Two futures whispered into the roar

When dreams are bad, something loud, something stupid
Anything but mud
A soft laugh, you okay?
I'm fine, you can't keep red-rope a practice
The other dreams a quiet place near water
Nothing burning and not yet and sounds

Helicopter rising, the jungle falling
Noise ahead, all of us have to pull always
A better house alive
The motor's insisting
Forward is the only way
Forward is the only way

Act I Scene x