My War

/////////////////// Mickey Mouse Club \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Yelling, screaming, hours of physical mental exercise and pain
The first steps of indoctrination
The color of tradition kicks me in the rear telling me to shape up or go home
The long blue line

Service before self, Excellence in all we do, Integrity first
The heart of the Wing, the Truth

The worm eats through the book of equations
as I learn disciplinary lessons of an officer
To be or not to be is the subject
If I sit in this chair will it break is the major

Five years of training
Year by year-gradual progression to normalcy

Graduation is the ultimate prize
The fighters flying by
Caps thrown high in the sky
Firm grip of the president’s right hand
Diploma in leadership in the left

No more Mickey Mouse rules
The club days are over
Now the real adventure begins

////////// Warheads on Foreheads \\\\\\\\\\\\\

Let the bombs fly through the white clouds
Searching for the red dot
In a blink of an eye
the fearful terror meets their 40 virgins in heaven

Bullets fill my chest
blocking my airway

I watch my friend head get blown away into a million pieces
Blood gushing out of the shattered leg

The protective eye watching overhead
The frontline grateful for their presence

I order men to face the door of their Maker
Hopeful we won’t meet Him until a later day
We fight on the topsoil graves
of the lifeless camouflaged bodies

A child picks up an abandoned toy car from the street
The attractive red device takes half her face
I stare into her cold dead eye
Deep within is man’s attempt to recreate hell

“Today is your lucky day”
“Your papers just came in to go home”

////////////// Land of the Free \\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The shelter of refuge
Welcomed with open arms
The streets cheer as I walk down the lane

Respected by all
Forgotten by my family
“Who are you daddy”
“That’s not how we do things, honey”
Where did my wife and life go
They left for another

“Don’t call us, we’ll call you”
I guess launching missiles is not a prized skill
Holding up the sign, “Will Work For Food”

Where are my brothers when I need them the most
Help line, Help line please tell me what to do
The gun is in my hand and its ready to shoot

Through my new eyes, nothing is the same
Everyone is a suspect, must protect the red, white, and blue

Visions control my thoughts
Nightmares ruin my sleep
Old habits cause involuntary movements

I see her everyday
crying as the red fireflies screech across her face
A hole made through the source of the screams
The crying stops
It rings through my ears
as I stand in New York

I visit my friend 22
His left leg is missing, his right arm too
His burnt lips attempt to smile
as I walk through the room
We laugh, we joke, we snob,
we reminisce the days
I wish I saw him more
during his last days
This is my brother
Bonded by the blood of others
What we did out there
kept us close to one another
Everything is not bright
Everyday isn’t sunny
Normalcy isn’t normal
That is the biggest change
Eventually, things will make sense again
But today—is not that day

///////// This is truly my war \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
//////// Now and forever more \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\