Denim shirts make men rugged
like the Vietnam war
made men heroes.
All about appearances
in cookie cutter kitchens, made by "artists"
trying to fulfill their abstract dreams.
For, by god, he told me about the wall
where his brother's name lay
and he had no shame in wiping his eyes.
He may have missed the draft
and they surely missed their mark
but who says he wasn't fighting during that war?
The "white man's burden" is no burden to us
with our Manifest Destiny dreams
and WMD fears.
There is no difference
between the Kent State shootings
and the Bonus Army protests.
Iraq or Vietnam?
American history is a tragedy
just like the ones Shakespeare wrote
and the empires Rome destroyed.
Human nature doesn't change.