With Friends Like You, Who Needs Enemies - or - Wartime Transversals

With Friends Like You, Who Needs Enemies
- or -
Wartime Transversals

Barracks and tire tracks,
stuck through the mud.
Hail storms and halos-
worn lackluster.
Gun to a head,
go on pull the trigger.
Best friend or not,
it's just the shake of that index finger.
Shaky,
not like you,
to be so unsure.
Held close to breathe on
too human I am to you now.
And in this instant enemies become from friends.
But with friends like you...
I care in the end.

-Matthew Koutzun