Anthony Tripi, 'And The War Can Go On Forever'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

And The War Can Go On Forever

Forget they didn't have to die.
Call them the fallen.
Let that soft sound so far from death lull your mind.
Forget one man's obsession ran them to their deaths,
forget the lies he used to start the war,
lives he's ruined, the way he hides from the dead.
Forget the wasting of the wounded,
discharged fast, gotten rid of, shipped out of sight.
Drape their deaths with flags of words,
same words so quickly spent for the first three thousand.
Drag out sounds that quieted other deaths.
Say they've gone to rest, say we'll never forget.
Don't say scavenged by recruiters,
brainwashed in basic, shipped into madness,
blown into chunks, scavenged
again at the grave,
old lies for the next death,
words falling apart the moment spoken.
What rest in the bottom of a box
and what have we ever remembered?
And the war can go on forever.

by Anthony Tripi