PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Play the drum roll! 
Enlist the naive 
young men who played 
hockey and lacrosse 
in high school. 
Who got laid at 
their proms. 
Drank with their buddies. 
Planned their futures. 
Dreamed their dreams. 
Tell them they have to 
defend freedom. 
Play them songs of 
heroism and pride. 
Show them pretty 
pictures of foreign women. 
Insist they should be 
proud of such a "career". 
'The few and the brave! ' 
'The mighty and proud! ' 
Dress them in the 
same green uniform. 
Shout at them. 
Destroy their 
will to think. 
Give them guns and 
banners to carry. 
Make up an enemy 
teach them to hate. 
Send them far away 
to a country they've 
read about in 
magazines. 
March them. 
Parade them. 
Deploy them. 
Set them against 
other young men 
who were dreamed 
into the same nightmare. 
Let the two sides 
come into battle. 
The ultimate hero 
contest for young men! 
Brittle bombs. 
Knives, destruction. 
A good cause! 

When you are finished 
using their youth, 
send some of them home 
shattered and afraid. 
Keep some for tomorrow's 
new headline war. 
For the dead, send home 
a flag to their mothers. 
Don't forget to tell 
the grieving families 
that their sons 
died 
for freedom!