And He Died
Today the President
Awarded a Metal of Honor,
Posthumously,
To a young man,
Nineteen,
Who fell upon a grenade,
Blowing his parts,
Into oblivion.
And he died…
He saved four persons
From his fate.
Irony.
A blaspheme of living,
A travesty of truth,
Not the act of valor,
Rather the presentation posthumously.
And he died…
An act two years past,
What took you so long?
Political grandstanding
Presented by a clown,
On the stage of leadership,
Trodding the steps of insanity,
And he died…
Please tell me President..
And he died…
The oil stains
Permeate,
The ignorance,
Damns..
And he died…
Reason has been eclipsed,
By hypocrisy,
The rhetoric of misguided,
Patriotism,
And he died…
The worms of ego and greed,
Feed upon our politic,
The road to perdition,
Is paved with this nation’s
Indolence.
And he died…
What would he have become?
What magnificent contribution
To the world could he have achieved?
We will never know,
And he died…
Four thousand and counting,
And he died…
What could they have achieved?
Religious dogma,
And you thought democracy,
Would change this?
Thousands of years of inbred,
Belief?
And he died…
Their blood is on the hands,
Of each vote cast,
And he died…
How did his life defend,
What you believe,
When you don’t know what you believe?
And he died…
At nineteen,
He stood on a great adventure
Of life,
Of promise,
When will we ever learn?
And he died…
Our nation is bleeding,
And he died…
Our leaders blinded,
And he died…
As a creature caught in a trap,
We devour our clasped national psyche
As our youth bleeds for our sin
Of complacence.
Each of us dies with each of them,
Their blood is our blood,
And we will be damned for it.
Copyright: 2008, Donald Harbour
WOW! Powerful piece. I love the refrain in this too. And so true.