I sit in an air conditioned office with an oscillating vent I haven’t walked through the fog of war but I can smell the stench Toxic gases and burning flesh as the smoke flows over our walls It creeps by us unnoticed between the fast food and cellular calls It brings explosive droplets of reality that scare and shake our frames Yet we press on, like clouds of calm, building friendships through last names We take orders written by those that we have never met In uniforms designed by those that have never sweat Here to battle an enemy we still don’t completely understand So we inject the stars and stripes and snort the desert sands People adorning camouflage put that same pattern over history Giving tours of stolen palaces that once celebrated foreign victories As the endangered Blackhawks rip through these innocent skies And Humvees enter the veins to subdue Iraqi pride The glowing ball of amber beams as brightly as it can Attempting to iron out the wrinkles from this discourse of man
