𝗣𝗼𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗲 𝗔 𝗣𝗼𝗲𝗺

The Trench

Dear Marcus,

Men are looking for me—Not men, savage animals scavenge for me. I'm just a soldier fighting for my country but the longer I fight and the longer I stay, the more I want to go back home.

I miss Mama's bacon cheddar pasta. I have no good food here, only bread that has gone bad. Sometimes I go without food for days, but I do not wish to worry you my brother. I feel like food is least important when you have dead bodies falling onto the water filled trenches and floating by you as you shoot the enemy. They have an advantage without knowing so—getting bumped by a cold body and pushing you while you work.

We tried digging trenches again, but there's no space for the water to go, so we just walk through filthy water, sometimes even mud.

The animals are the worst. I remember brother, when we use to go into the woods, behind Auntie Nya's house and we hunted for raccoons and caught little beetles that were just trying to go on their way. Now, I fear looking at animals. Specially rodents like rats. I heard from Colonel James that a rat slept in the same bed as Crazy Adams, and the next day he woke up with a rat bite on his neck, two days later he was dead from disease. Officer Gump said he saw a corpse being eaten by worms but I much rather that than being suffocated by falling dirt.

My dear friend Jaden, he took a break from his neverending throwing of grenades when the trenches wall fell over his body, suffocating him to death.

I hear the clank of guns in my mind even when battle has ceased, even when I sleep I hear the clink of bullet shells dropping onto the barren soil.

I miss you brother, but today I forgot my own family as I thought of how I couldn't leave the battlefield. I thought of how I should end it, like Lieutenant Dan, he took a rope, stood up and ran into the woods. We searched for him until we found his body hanging from a dead tree, almost as if it had died with him.

I miss you everyday, but the thought of the real me, the real Jackson Frey coming back, doesn't seem real. I will never come back brother. But as I return insane, please stay by my side and take care of my fragile mind.

With Love,
Jackson.