by Ronald Sellers

Created on: September 18, 2010

Action Figures

A soul that knows no love; knows no hate

Respecting those I hated, early morning dreams honor those I killed, while the VA makes me wait

For scraps from the fat table of eloquent liars

Cheap whiskey will do...but good whiskey let's me stare into the eyes of the truth

They taught me to stand and not blink

To kill and not think

In middle age I remember that I rejected my parents for new ones

Who showed me things outside my former...small world

How to speak without sounding like a hick

What wine to drink with fish or steak

How far I could bend before I would break

That it was ok

For evil men to pray

In Grenada I learned teenaged courage...and fear

Grafitti:

On the Berlin wall

On Noriaga's wall

Blood, sand and simplicity in Desert Storm

The bodies of my friends

Dead and torn

Only tombstones mark the end

Of  sojourns

Of the truely grizzled veteran's  prayers for Privates younger than their children while they mark forever blood from broken skulls

And body parts scattered on the ground and around dumpsters

As if they never belonged to

People who lived and loved and dreamed     ......

The cold wind of death

The stifling heat of bureaucracy

The second hand ticks

And I hate myself...

For eternity

Look at veterans

And you will see old men;

Listen to us...

And you will hear;

This

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