the prize…

Photograph from Google

like most
these hills
served as farms
for centuries
now the crops
are fed
with human blood
and the hills
have become priceless
to be fought over
by foreign troops
and outsiders
but
the farmers know
just as before
a new prize
will be declared
the hills will stand abandoned
so the mines
will be cleared
new seeds cast
upon unmarked graves
and the hills
will return
the only prize
that sustains life