One Step Before the Precipice

One Step Before the Precipice

We'd like to stay out
Of other's affairs,
Like an island isolated above
Woe, misfortune, and cares.

But the World Trade Center
Became more than a dare.
Soldiers answered the call,
Seeking only what's fair.

Daily we are warned by opulent hues.
Bush sends soldiers off,
Making news, changing views,
Attacking the invisible evil
Where insurgents destroy their own.

Burning the hearts,
Souls,
Of a few
men,
And more than a few family units,
As human life becomes a toll.

The Red Cross flees
Their function is found
Destroyed without conscience.
Human horrors abound.

Compassion can't be purchased
By the dollar, euro, or pound.
Destruction created, irrepressible,
Anti-creation of Satanic self-righteous hounds.

Those in the occupied country
Not swayed by invasion,
They have lived the high fee
Of the Reaper's persuasion,
Normal fear is normal.
New fear unpredictable.

In the ripples, waves, and wake,
From our vigilant worldly lake,
Develops a new society of humans:
Opaque,
Aghast,
Perhaps, some ideologically unawake.

Berets worn by frogs,
And historic German dogs,
Bark, undulate,
Pacifistic prate,
And don't act,
Fail in stale debate.
While we feel their lack,
Dying a few more,
A bit more
Inside,
Every day
As another soldier and his buddy
Pay.

Americans die abroad.
The life tolls rise daily,
Like Viet Nam before the 1980s.
Must history repeat itself?
Old military strategy,
Doesn't seem to obliterate new guerillas.

Unresolved by conventional warfare,
The "I do solemnly swear. . .
To the best of my ability
WILL PRESERVE
PROTECT,
And DEFEND
The Constitution of the United States. . . "
Enemies foreign and domestic,
Efforts seem to be failing.

The majority and Electoral College rule.
I submit to the leadership,
Without being silenced,
Because soldiers fight for free speech,
Among other human rights of dignity.

I feel we need another direction
From inside this difficult contradiction.
I feel somewhere leadership is missing
In a different kind of National
Guard mission.