Sand

Sand is a lot like shrapnel:
Weather reduces itself to ruin
And the smallest pieces will
Worm their way into your heart.

The warscape is much like a desert:
Drifting dunes of spent shell casings
Avalanche as crabbing tanks
Skid down the flanks.

Shrapnel is a lot like sand:
You can hold death in your hand.
If you let it, it'll claim your vitality
And then, you'll drift away into the vast.

Henry Shrapnel, British Army officer and inventor of the Shrapnel shell, died today in 1842.

Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet and author, was born today in 1941.