Act I, Scene I — A sodden trench, the moon doth hide
Behind a shroud of smoke, as if it cried.
Two soldiers speak amid the muck and mire,
Their breath a mist, their eyes like tempered fire.

[Enter THOMAS and JAMES, young soldiers]

THOMAS:
O brother James, what spectre haunts thy brow?
Thy gaze is fixed as if thou seest now
Some phantom borne of war’s accursèd womb,
That crawls from out the fog to spell our doom.

JAMES:
Aye, Tom, thy words strike nearer than thou know’st.
For every blast that shakes yon wither’d post
Doth jangle in my breast a hollow bell,
That tolls, methinks, for me its mournful knell.
The guns, relentless, chide the stars to flee—
And in their voice I hear my elegy.

THOMAS:
Why speak’st thou thus? Hath courage fled thy soul?
What of our cause? Our land? The honour’d goal?
Art thou the lad who once, in country fair,
Did race the wind and laugh upon the air?

JAMES:
That James lies buried ‘neath a Flanders sky,
Ere yet he learn’d what price men pay to die.
The earth, it groans with ghosts beneath our tread—
I fear to join the ranks of speechless dead.

THOMAS:
But fear, dear friend, is not the foe to shun.
'Tis in the facing that the brave are won.
To shake, to quail—aye, that is but our lot;
Yet still we rise, though Death doth mark the spot.

JAMES:
How dost thou bear it, when the night is long,
And shells fall down like curses from the strong?
What prayer dost thou make to keep thy nerve,
Whilst bloodied Time grinds men from flesh to curve?

THOMAS:
I think of home, of mother’s candlelight,
That warm’d the pane ‘gainst ev'ry winter's bite.
I think of fields where laughter once held sway—
And tell myself: I guard that peace today.
I find in thee, in each who shares this fight,
A brotherhood that glows through endless night.
Though fear may knock, we answer not alone—
For hand in hand, the brave do stand as stone.

JAMES:
Thy words do plant a fire in my chest.
If I must fall, I'll fall at valor's crest.
Let cowards flee to sleep in bed and lie—
I’ll walk with thee where thunder shakes the sky.

[They clasp hands]

THOMAS:
Then let the dawn arise, let tempests stir,
We march as one, and none our hearts deter.
Though war be cruel, and fate unknown and grim,
We bear the torch ‘til stars forget to dim.

[Exeunt as a distant shell breaks the silence. The trench fades into the fog of fate.]