"I am a veteran of WW II, I served my country as well as my fellow Veterans. I, along with my wife, need our SS and Medicare to survive. Cutting the budget would put our lives into a great deal of hardship. We are senior aged. At Pearl Harbor I was ready and able to put my life on the line for my country. Sir, I don't believe this administration has the moral right to repay the seniors like myself with cutting our means of survival by cutting the budget."
—George, NC
It is not enough that you served with honor
It is not enough that you died for the cause
It is only enough that you are most willing
To die over and over until death has no loss
`til it finds passage through the vein of self
Torturing you through its very pounding
How dreaded and parched is your termination
How outrageous and bloodied damp are theirs
How might we know the horror of your plight
Without looking deeper than the beggar’s eyes
Without examining infinitely the empty corpse
Without narrowing our glance at rib and tongue
It is not enough that we serve a mighty tower
It is not enough that we die at its engulfing us
How might we know when it has come `round
Come to collect our very bones for the sacrifice
Will it place marks upon our shoulder, forehead
It is not enough that you served with solid honor
How might we know without ownership of you
That you gave up everything of you to save her
How might we know unable then to see the person
It is not enough that you, sir, were willing to die
It is not enough to lay claim to that and that alone
It is only enough that you are one most willing
Death to repeat within you and you evaporate
To die again and again and again and...
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman
VetsForPeace -- Iraq Insurgents
VFP of Maine -- BBC Iraqi Prisonbreak
