Beyond the astral fences stark, Above the cerulean bounds, Where cosmic battles soar and arc Across the darkness, fleet confounds. Ten thousand sparks of warring light, Tinged with baleful reds and blues, Glide like electrified comets' light, Fractured by nightmare's awful ruse. For here do soldier's blood congeal In galactic breadth and breadthless cold-- The unending echoes of pain they feel-- Stretched like titanic tales retold. As missiles rise and bright beams pass, And shielding domes subsist and break; So do the hopes of valiant class End like the tails of cosmic snake. With every dream so cleaved in twain, The lonely, void-constrained woe, For distant deaths of cherished bane Reality erodes, and so-- The shattered time, the fractured space, Makes painful tides that tear and rend; Ungentle memories, a bitter taste, Ascribe to stars' conniving ends. Since the dawn of this uneasy lot, The soldier's story, time avowed, His battles fought, his blood invested, all For space to be in stately shroud. When day shall break for soldier's wake, And we shall cheer to dread passings, As one must surely find escape, Or sing the dirge with joyous strings. Oh soldier, bound by heaven's leash, Still valiant heart, and hissing loss Were Legion, found in icy reach, Laden with frost, and earthly cost. By time's constraint, condemned to hell, And barred from heaven's realm and lead, The soldier marches dim and fell, As one collective, sullen tread. For in the darkness--never more, Parse limitless the troubled waste-- Far distant from life's kindling core, The soldier's present numbers chase. Doomed in this realm of frozen tears, The endless riverbank of death, Among the astral, cosmic spheres, Herald the fallen, fading breath. Beyond the astral fences stark, O come, my valiant soldier, save A lost and wandering, drowning spark, With one last indignant, fiery wave.