She

She watches the swarm of men moving through her city.
What’s left of her city…
The once happy homes have become tombs,
holding broken remains, and broken dreams.
Names scribbled on what’s left of a wall the only reminder of lives now gone,
and with the arrival of these men, even that will become lost.
Family, friends, neighbors live on only in her memory,

She slings her pack off her back, and braces herself…
like others from her scattered unit in the city are doing.
Deep breath in…
                           … deep breath out…
 …She squeezes the trigger.

She falls to cover as a hail of bullets answer her own.
Their volley interrupted by her compatriots down the road….
New target, the enemy distracted…
Looking…
                  …Breathing…
 …firing.

There is a familiar rumble in the earth…
She heard this before…Men run from cover to get out of its way.
It rounds the corner, and bears down upon her.
She grabs her pack…
                                   …runs three steps…
 ... takes no more.

Her post explodes into a cloud of fire and debris,
bringing an end to what remained of the building,
and the memory of so many.

Her unit scrambles to stop the tank,
to push back the men,
but in the end, are forced to fall back.
She will be mourned…
                                        …She will be remembered
until the last in her unit falls.