Liars liars said we were against our troops.
they said it then.
they’re saying it now.
it’s harder, this time, to be real supportive.
things have changed.
you’re all volunteers.
your Mamas should have told you what was going on.
half of you there in the war zone aren’t even
really in the service;
you’re contractors, hired help,
what we used to call
“mercenaries” except more supply side functionary
than grunt.
but I read ‘Channeling’ when it meant
something besides a guy who communes
with the Other Side,
and you can’t tell me any of you are there
of your own free will;
no more than the boys I knew
who joined right out of high school
even though their Mamas cried,
because they’ve been lied to
by liars
who make a living lying
to silly children
who think they’re smart;
who are allowed into our schools
to tell lies and lies and more lies.
they chewed us up and spat us out like pistachio shells;
our brothers live under the bridge
and their children were born deformed.
we brought everybody home we could
–- with amnesty and M.I.A. bracelets –-
but to what?
to whelp cannon fodder for the present hostilities,
because we don’t know how to make men of boys without killing them;
because the empire still runs on blood,
and now it needs girl blood, too.
they don’t have to be virgins
and this isn’t Paradise.
06/12/06
Mariann Wizard
