Warriors Fall Like Riverbank Trees Into the Red Current

Warriors fall along the blood river like trees collapsing from its banks. Marrow and blood flow into the current, and foam gathers upon the surface where bodies, weapons, and broken vehicles have already become its waterborne forms.

Those without courage look upon the scene and recoil in terror. The landscape reveals what battle requires without covering it in the distant language of banners and victory cries. Here the cost lies close enough to touch, red and moving between the armies.

Yet the brave warriors find steadiness in the same place that terrifies the fearful. The verse does not call the river pure or soften its horror. It shows contrasting hearts before the same sight. One sees only the end of safety and flees. Another remains settled in the duty for which he entered the field, even while the river carries away the forms of those who stood beside him.

The same red river makes one heart flee and another become still within the duty it has accepted.