MILK STILL DRIPPING FROM THEIR LIPS

(C) 2007 BY APRIL SIMS

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

Our uncle tells our daughters and sons

That they can’t kill legally on the streets of the United States

And entices them to get into helicopters

To be shipped like freight

To other countries to annihilate

Entire villages

Too young to deal with the spillage

Of human lives

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

Sent overseas to chop down family trees

Trees that once bore fruit of legacies

Now the trees have been uprooted

Never to bear fruit again

Their innocent lives extinguished

By the stroke of a pen

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

They quickly find themselves in Dorothy’s shoes

No longer in Kansas

Fully awake . . . not dreaming

Unable to hit snooze

This is their new reality

Their new nightmare

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

They were told they were going on one tour

And when they ask when will their tour ends

The answers they keep receiving is . . . uhm . . . we’re not sure

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

We only hear about what a good job they're are doing over there

Protecting and serving the United States

But no one ever talks about what makes them shake

No one ever talks about the lies they were fed

That makes most of them wish they were dead

Taking their own lives . . . better know as suicide

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

They watched the commercial

You know the one that implied

Video games could be a rehearsal

And all they had to do

Was sign their names on the dotted line

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

They left out one small detail . . .

In video games no one truly dies

Because they can earn bonus lives

Or turn the game off and start again

In this real life game the end is the end

In between child and adult

Milk still dripping from their lips

Old enough to smoke

But not old enough to drink

Barely 21

And armed with a gun

I can still hear them cry

On the other end of a gun

Another one has fallen