The Frontline is Everywhere
A man with no legs
From knees down
He permanently begs
With a cardboard sign
On an unforgiving
Concrete bed
In a system that reneges
Internal chaos
Void of stillness
Suffocating paranoia
Untreated mental illness
His tinnitus screams!
PTSD & his fucked up dreams!
His peaceful demeanor
Not exactly what it seems
Mama prayed so hard
Every day he toured
Died of a broken-heart
She don’t cry no more
Newspapers headline
‘Nother war for ‘the brass’
Sore & dry
As that paper wipes his ass
Patriotic rhetoric
And neglected veterans
Increasing tolerance
Injecting heroin
Purple Heart
Re-living the action
Curbside freak show
Social distraction
A paper cup
A dollar & some change
A little towards a meal
A little more for the vein
Between the cracks
Lost in time
Beneath the beard
Beneath the grime
It’s in his eyes...
Another world of fire
Sniveling-shivering-withering
Forever never higher
Disenchanted &
A big deep sleep
Highest now...
Echoed lightening leap
Yep...
Died right there in the street
‘Thoughts & prayers’
‘Thank you for your service’
Rumbling rail underground...
Vibrating soul
Up on the surface
Unknown soldier
Camo Green
Another notch scored
Your War Machine
Autopsy-formality
Vagrant of unsung identity
No name or claim
Nor Gold Star Family
Without a Folded Flag
In a Potters Field
Shoveling convicts now bury
What the pentagram yeilds...
Twice now dead
Once upon our
Homeland city streets-
And alas-a war past...
That blast!
A roadside IED over-seas...
...Words-words-words...
Some rarely ever heard
Like
Life-love & peace
Yet their antonyms increase...
Allegiance & patriotic colours...
Wavering symbolically in a
Perpetual sonic breeze...