This poetry collection explores the competing nature of the soldier's identity found in a civilization that worships and fetishize the myth of the warrior, serving as both an instruction manual for those with no military experience whatsoever and as confirmation for Soldiers the world over that their creation was inevitable, their use foreordained. Each poem and work of flash fiction elucidates the steps in which soldiers are created followed by their subsequent lives in the aftermath of their utilization as warfighters. The work demonstrates the ways in which society may turn a blind eye to the wars around them, to the destruction taking place in their name, to the layers of emotions that define the identity of the modern warfighter and his search for something more. The work gives voice to the struggle to understand actions before, during, and after combat both for the participant soldiers and for those far removed from the military fray while seeking to rewrite the ways in which we understand modern civilization and its continual march towards destruction.