We are the dead…..
Not Glorious dead
Just dead…
We’ve seen our last sunrise
Laughed our last laugh
Those who have known true love….
Have at least loved…
Death caught us by surprise
Soldiers occupational hazard …
It cannot be undone….
Pity is not what we want
Just remember us….
For we are the dead…
Not the Glorious dead
Just dead.
© Tony McNally
Cigarettes blinking like fireflies
Men together
Hot tea sipped
Tales of romance
Exaggerated
Eyes flicking in the mist
Weapons held close
Ammo checked
Completely in the moment
At ease with each other
Random chat
Football
Fighting
More sex
No eye contact
Macho men
Preparing
For history
Last drink of tea
Fag butts crushed underfoot
All at once
They turn
Like the tide
“Listen Inn.”
Then it began.
© Tony McNally
Thou shalt not Kill
They told me at school
To love they Neighbour
Seemed to be the rule
Then I became a soldier
Rules seemed to change
They gave me a rifle
I practiced on the range
We killed wooden images
Of Russian soldiers
The recoil of the rifle
Bruising the shoulders
Then one day it was War
Padre blessed us on the ship
We sang “Onward Christian Soldiers “
Prayed we wouldn’t get hit
So we were the good guys?
They were the bad?
We were given the green light
To kill was not so bad?
We won our War and went home
Handed back our weapons
Went home and hugged our families
Trying to ignore our nightmare demons
Back to, Thou shalt not kill
I suppose will be the rule
Until you’re Country says
Pick up that gun you fool.
© Tony McNally
Then it began……
Id read about it
Watched it on TV
Dreamt about it
Here is yours
WAR……
Then it was over
I stopped reading about it
Watching it on TV
Dreaming about it?
Then it began
Again
Again
Again
Again…….
When will it end?
© Tony McNally
Take my body to Avalon
Place it on the pyre
When my shell disappears
Drink loudly and sing
Raise your swords and axes
As my ash is taken by the wind
Laugh like men
Wave me goodbye
To the gates of Valhalla
A warriors end
To join the ranks of the afterlife
Guardian angels of the living
No sorrow
Just joy
Not gone
Just altered
Home.
© Tony McNally
Black sky suddenly alight with Flames
Quiet mountains
Now engulfed in violence
Screams echo between the rocks
Heroic deeds
Life taken in an instance
A brother falls
Your heart torn out
Onwards you go
Into the pages of history
Just survive this hell
No thoughts of home
Slam home another magazine
Cordite burns your nostrils
Meaning your still of this earth
To move towards a wall of bullets
Why?
Because you’re a soldier
More fear of failing your comrades
Than dying for your Regiment
Crack thump
Down
Then up
One more bound
I will survive
The dawn light
Will see me home
The class of 82.
© Tony McNally
It floats up above our head
Made of colorful thread
The first one was made by hand
And even that one looked so grand
It's always inspired me
When it's up there for all to see
It gets soldiers through the night
So they wake up to see the light
Because when they see it flying
It reminds them why they kepp on trying
It represents the land of the free
And it means everything to me
It's lasted through all the ages
And people write about it, pages and pages
Without it, our country is naught
Even though so many have fought
All those soldiers on the front lines
Reminds me that this country of mine
Is always free, through and through
All because of that Red White and Blue.
*
8 POEMS
-saiom shriver-
UNIVERSAL WE
*
The universal
all-including we
encompasses thee,
circumscribes me
*
ANOREXIA CURE
*
She said she was
able to conquer
anorexia by
focusing on food
as fuel.
*
UNSUBTLE
*
The woman would
go to AA meetings
and describe
how alcohol made her
more promiscuous.
She always wore
a “Rent Me” tshirt.
*
THIRD EAR
*
God
caused me as I awoke
to hear
in my third ear
“Not in the morning
(mourning) pond does
the lion wash his blood.”
1. ‘The Lion of Judah
is Jesus’ interpreted one friend.
2. Jean said that the lion
does his killing at night.
3. If the evening pond is older
than the morning pond, a
lion chooses an older partner
who heals him.
4.
In the evening the lion
does not see his blood
… his sin… the pink suntinted
waters reflect only his
perfection.
*
BREAKING THROUGH MATRIX
*
A woman trying to disentangle
herself from a relationship
with her serially unfaithful
and frequently
violent husband of whom she
was afraid… heard in her third
ear
“As much as possible sleep
under the midnight sky.”
*
HIGHER MAGNETISM
*
Tom met a woman… and
told her she was dating 2 men
and that she was more
sexually attracted to the
shorter man. Then he asked
her which of the two would
be a better father for her
children. She chose the taller
man.
*
TRAFFICKING
*
All human trafficking is
heinous… from child prostitution
and child labor to kidnappings
of adults… drafting them into
armies, chaining them
in brothels, enslaving
them as domestics.
Trafficking in trillions
of animals to EAT them
does not receive as
much attention.
Human and animal trafficking
are combined in many of the world’s
fishing corporations.
Eating fishes is not only
playing Russian roulette with
ones health and causing
suffocation agony to fishes
but is a factor in human slavery
as well.
*
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
*
THAI CHILD PROSTITUTION AND
FISHING INDUSTRY KIDNAPPING
Thailand is a gentle country..
which has banned logging to
save its forests
and which is permeated by the nonviolent
vibrations of Buddhism. But its dark
side includes being a worldwide
center of child kidnapping and
prostitution, as well as tolerating
kidnapping and forced labor in its
fishing industries.
WAR
In every military there are men
separated from their wives who
seek sexual outlet with prostitution,
destroying families and spreading STD’s.
The soldiers of the world are a factor
in human trafficking.