Initially, I wanted to write a decent rant/essay sort of thing.
I wanted to say that I'm as American as any, lover of the ideals for which this country was founded. I also wanted to say I love guns and swords and women. I served my country for 6 years, hated nearly everyday of it, and managed to come home from 2 tours with all physical parts in tact but recurring nightmares and feelings of guilt, the worst of which being survivor's guilt.
I wanted to say I sometimes stutter, due to a brain injury while serving.
I wanted to say "you're welcome" for all the incoming "thank you's" but the truth is, I am disgusted.
This could easily be broken down into a myriad of different rants, but for me, all of these things further mentioned hold the same theme. This is a theme of something I was told we were all going to have. that I was going to have.
That thing is protection.
Instead of writing all of that in longer and more wordy sentences, my feelings came out differently:
Blinders
When someone says
“this is for your protection”
They believe you.
And then,
You listen, ears to glass, like a doctor
digging into a lung, saying
“This will grow if I
don't get it out.”
And like a cancer spreading,
we've grown too big
for our britches,
for our shoes.
We've grown
corn and soy and other types of “food”.
We've done harm and we've done well.
We've sucked the earth dry of oil,
of wealth.
We watch oceans rising, then
slink back to their rightful place while we
go on and on at a fever pace
with our ifucks and our headphones.
We go to work. Then
We go home.
I want to pose a question,
but the problem is I
have to ask the right
one.
How did we get here?
And
What have we done?
We hurt and
We maul,
We cry and
We maim, blaming:
Our health system:
flawed.
Our dignity:
missing.
Our veterans:
fucked.
Our teachers:
persisting.
Our government,
forbidding:
Pay raises,
Second chances,
Prevention
of massacres.
Raw goat's milk,
Gay marriage,
Prevention
of cancer.
We never thought
it would come down to this.
We always thought
We were better than this.
Now we must reap
What we have sown.
After we
Go to work, then
Go home.
I wanted to say that I'm as American as any, lover of the ideals for which this country was founded. I also wanted to say I love guns and swords and women. I served my country for 6 years, hated nearly everyday of it, and managed to come home from 2 tours with all physical parts in tact but recurring nightmares and feelings of guilt, the worst of which being survivor's guilt.
I wanted to say I sometimes stutter, due to a brain injury while serving.
I wanted to say "you're welcome" for all the incoming "thank you's" but the truth is, I am disgusted.
This could easily be broken down into a myriad of different rants, but for me, all of these things further mentioned hold the same theme. This is a theme of something I was told we were all going to have. that I was going to have.
That thing is protection.
Instead of writing all of that in longer and more wordy sentences, my feelings came out differently:
Blinders
When someone says
“this is for your protection”
They believe you.
And then,
You listen, ears to glass, like a doctor
digging into a lung, saying
“This will grow if I
don't get it out.”
And like a cancer spreading,
we've grown too big
for our britches,
for our shoes.
We've grown
corn and soy and other types of “food”.
We've done harm and we've done well.
We've sucked the earth dry of oil,
of wealth.
We watch oceans rising, then
slink back to their rightful place while we
go on and on at a fever pace
with our ifucks and our headphones.
We go to work. Then
We go home.
I want to pose a question,
but the problem is I
have to ask the right
one.
How did we get here?
And
What have we done?
We hurt and
We maul,
We cry and
We maim, blaming:
Our health system:
flawed.
Our dignity:
missing.
Our veterans:
fucked.
Our teachers:
persisting.
Our government,
forbidding:
Pay raises,
Second chances,
Prevention
of massacres.
Raw goat's milk,
Gay marriage,
Prevention
of cancer.
We never thought
it would come down to this.
We always thought
We were better than this.
Now we must reap
What we have sown.
After we
Go to work, then
Go home.