A DAY LOST

           We lost a day on the trip over.
           We lost more than a day on the way back.
           Stepping from a plane
           To the cackles of ungrateful chicken,
           scratching and pecking in the common bowl of freedom.
           Throwing scathing remarks in our faces,
           Burning the flag that covered the remains
           of those who forfeited the breath of life in their behalves.
           Other places and agendas offered a safer coop for these fowl
           where they could scratch each others mites in safety.
           Safe from the inherent responsibilities of citizenship;
           secure from the call of patriotism.
           Social parasites, sucking from the Nation's blood.
           We lost a day on the trip over.
           Setting the precedent for future losses.
           Memories from that time
           rush upon us like a flash flood,
           washing everything to the brink of indifference.
           Perpetually sloshing around inside our brains;
           preserved in the formaldehyde of the experience.
           Faces and situations from long ago and far away
           branded into the membranes of our minds.
           Always lying low, lurking in the bushes,
           primers at the ready, tripwires carefully set,
           ready to detonate at the slightest touch
           to blast shards of the past into a vulnerable present.
           Experiences reserved for the initiated, who will
           pay the price day in and day out while despicable,
           ignominious, lily-livered dissidents continue to wallow
           under the protection of an acrimonious pardon.
           They didn't understand then; they don't understand now.
           Their pathetic type don't deserve to understand.
           Let them cringe in their manure filled coops and hide
           their mite-eaten heads under their mangy wings each time
           they hear the word "Patriot." Let them tremble and writhe
           as the worms of cowardice and deceit eat into their cancerous
           bowels at the mere mention of the word "Freedom."
           Let the resonance of the National Anthem descend on their ears like
           the scream of a hawk as they squawk and jabber in ignoble fear.
           Let them flock together in a loathsome, repugnant mass each time
           "Old Glory" flies high and proud.
           We don't expect to recoup our losses. That was the price we had
           to pay. We can live with our problems. Our heads are held high
           with dignity and decency for we and those preceding and following us
           are the indomitable winds of freedom that keep "Old Glory"
           flying for all Americans.

           ©Larry Dunn
           Vietnam Veteran
           
 
 
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