looks like today's the day

i am unbelievably sorry to say
they were my neighbors' children
(we must now use the past tense for them)

if I focus much on their deaths
rather than on the deaths of Asians
it is because I was a soldier
during (but mercifully far from) an American war in Asia
and on 21 March 1971 I signed a clipboard full of Army papers
got on my motorcycle
and I was a civilian again
(Richard Nixon wrote me a thank-you letter)
with both testicles, both eyes, both arms, both feet
and most of my head

these 2000 were not so lucky

we know the drill from the last time
we would probably save time and public money
if we began designing and building an Iraq-Afghanistan War Memorial
in Washington DC
now

(but we will leave room for many more names
if we aren't going to stop these wars now)

what should it look like?

statues of brave young men
enduring hardship
for a great and noble cause?

or a long black wall
subtly buried in a trench
hidden somewhat from easy sight
with many names

what are we in the mood for on the Mall this year?

America is eating her young again

certified by the same bullshit lies
by new bullshit liars

the new bullshit liars
were Young Republicans
and Young Americans for Freedom
and congressional and white house interns
with bow ties
the last time

what do young people taste like to politicians?

they must be delicious
Hillary votes to have them killed
most Democrats vote to have them killed
John Kerry voted to have them killed
(he said he'd have fewer of them killed
in strategically better ways)

America must never surrender
we must never turn tail and run
we must stay the course
and fill the tip of a red-hot poker
with Democracy
and Freedom
and ram it up all their terrorist muslim asses

unfortunately that will cost us
Freedom isn't Free
no, not money
we got plenty of money
don't worry about the money
it will cost us our neighbors' children
no, not our children
our children ain't fighting over there
don't worry about our children
our neighbors' children
over in Poortown
across town in Black City
way over there in Latinoville