Never let them Metamorph-Us
Updated on April 19, 2010
As the daily
news reports us,
never let us metamorphis,
into patriotic corpses,
never let the
spin boys thwart us,
not all back bush
so don't distort us.
Over two thousand
now have fallen
who answered when
the war came calling,
the ways we died
were most appalling
with limbs blown off
and torsos crawling
our hopes for armor
kept on stalling
while Humvees needed
overhauling
We stood our ground
while suicidal
bombers came in
waves quite tidal
up close to
our lines
they would sidle
showing sides
most homicidal.
The word d/ied/
holds an IED
an improvised form
of misery
that turned us
into amputees
ten thousand
maimed up enlistees
and many more
earned first degrees
of burns that
killed with agony
blindsided by
democracy
they came to set
these people free
and got sent
home retirees.
we are the ones
you cheered last year
and sent off with
some hope and tears
don't shun us
when we re-appear
disfigured,
and with heads unclear
we'll mutter,
and rub missing ears
and drown our
loneliness in beers
confronting much more
horrible fears
of unacceptance
with our peers.
But that fate
does not
share each box,
shipped home,
in private from Iraq
no need to give
the public shocks
with views of wartimes
greatest stocks
put them in Arlington
'neath rocks
formed into crosses,
concrete blocks
no pictures of
the coffin's rows,
the people do not
need to know,
let's all be glad
some chose to go,
and pray for peace
as cruel winds blow,
the stench of death
across the snows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~©-2004~MFB III