Soldiers of Napoleon, Moscow is within your grasp
Onion domed churches litter the way like signposts, glittering in the sun during your days, lit up with candles of hope as the epiphanies of your nights
The victory is phyrric as tracery of footprints retreat, their pace slowed by fatigue and bitter cold frozen like berries are memories in ice, banished only by the torrents of spring
Your numbers are thin as a single file wandering in confusion … have you lost your way or just your vanguard as temperatures plummet have you lost your heart or your minds shimmering before the the light gutters then expires in darkness
Stars decorate the sky invisible as they are bright
Wayside trees are stripped of leaves long gone as a memory of spring and rivers of ice are stalled in time
Your comrades fall glory flags banished flutter and fragment wisp away filament by filament
Red and gold colours turn monochrome grey and black
Loyal horses whinny their nostrils flaring as their legs fracture and sink beneath weights they cannot bear
The Emperor on his white steed is nowhere in sight lost invisible against the white snow
His empire as all are laid to waste
His will not be the last to perish from the earth on the frozen deserts of Holy Rus
The Czardom of God awaits every soul in the serenity of its sepulchre
Flynnpoetry 