Wrote this for a class in creative writing. The soldiers of the Ishbalan war and the choices they made. Make of it what you will.

Choices

They say we haven't got a choice
It's them or us
Live or burn

Scream
Or hear them screaming
One song for another
Hell must sound something like this

A crooked path
Sand shifts
A red sun sinks
Blanket of blue
Soon turns to black

Can't see the road beneath my feet

Sand is red
Like the sky
Rising blood in the morning
Pale moon, dead moon
Shadows play over
Face of white

Not much of a choice

Emotions strung on it
Like beads on a string

Not much of a choice

Them or us
Broken eyes, broken smiles
String is broken
Stones fall
Swallowed by sand

Them or us

Broken, we stand
Shattered hearts make bloody days
There's a choice
Always a choice

Sand and wind
They come and
Go
Hide the dead
Bury the lies

Doing the right thing
How can we
When we've forgotten
How to mourn?
Decisions never seemed
So complicated

Dead and buried
The night holds so much
Secrets and whispers
Sound louder than screams

Choices, choices
There is always a choice

Night breaks
Dawn rises
Red sun, red sky
So cold

Them or us
Who dies today?

Wind comes, shadows fade
Dead nights
bare their bones
Sand stained red
Turns to black
The dead
never stay buried

Choices
Them or us
Once it was simple
Once it was easy
Once there was a choice

There is always a choice

They scream, cry
Just like us
Blood is crimson, scarlet
Spills and stains
Just the same
Choices
Blood runs thick

We made our choice, didn't we?
Us, not them
Don't remember saying
Anything like that

But

We
Made them scream, die
Us, not them
So simple to say it

Live with the choices we make

Easier said than
Done
Blood is thick
Never fades completely
Scarlet sinks
Fades to black
Bloody bones never lie

We don't have a choice
You've always got a choice
Time passes, shadows fade
We made ours