“Don’t shoot til you see the whites of their eyes…” Israel Putnam

With all of the wars fought,
Battles from the trenches past,
Mortar shells and rifle slugs,
Mixing dirt with splattered blood,
Survival used to mean
A ticker-tape parade,
A medal of honor,
A hero’s welcome.

Today’s youth
Think in terms of video games,
Time in the digital arena,
The chiding of friends when
Too many hits means you’re out.

Volunteering now, a patriotic duty,
Defining difference between brave and meek.
Flight out of backwoods town or stagnant ghetto
Dismissed as incidental,
Service today, a simple trade for university degree.
Teens lured into hellish holes,
Hiding behind laser guided bombs
And silicon chip artillery.

The maiming bite of sniper fire and i.u.d.’s
The unlucky prize at the bottom of their box
Of Cracker Jacks.

And yet,

The conditioning continues,
From kindergarten on;
That vision of the waving flag,
Democracy’s minutemen,
Our inherent need to protect the innocent,
Holding the line for apple pie and Mom.

And we have risen, when called upon.
We have loaded our weapons, stacked the bombs,
We have attacked from land, sea, and air.
We have learned to sleep
Even after the nightmares have begun.

Oh, bitter school of mass destruction
What lessons heaped upon our souls?
In any life to face so much aggression
And come back any less than whole!

But on we march behind our banner.
The fireworks to tease our passive minds,
Reminding us that we must weigh
What we must fight for carefully,
Or simply become another enemy,
Another barbaric, militaristic tribe.

And we should never revel in destruction,
Our victory,
Dead bodies left lying on the ground.
We must see the truth in the eyes of a child
Who is living safe and sound.
We must hear it from our citizens
Unafraid to speak their minds.
We must believe that war is the very last resort
When peace we can not find.

And to those who’ve served this country proud,
We should tip our hats, buy a round,
Do our best look beyond the scars.
Whether used, in kind, as common thugs
Or in liberation’s legitimate cause,
We must remember,
Those who fight our wild-eyed foes
Have made us who we are.



Michael S. True
11-10-13