The stake

They live in the comfort

of long-practised

habits:

eyes and death

taken and given

with freedom.

Here is where we

come to make our doom.

Locals "pursue happiness"

at our behest, carving

and killing the carcass

of a once life-giving land.

Across the sands

small lives scurry and hide

trying to remain unnoticed

by the hunters in the night.