day ONE THOUSAND and NINETY FIVE

hymn to endless war

after september eleventh
everyone had tower ash in their mouths

everyone wanted a fight
now bang the drums of war

my brothers’ best friend
was black ops, first over
my brother wanted to be there
he, perpetually mad at me

I, with history, listed all the misdeeds
the malfeasance, the meddling
the bloodstains across this country's
short timeline. two thousand people
died needlessly, but that moment

that moment could have been
unique. if we had said our foreign policy
led us here, our policies were cruel

were wrong, maybe the world

could have forgiven us, maybe that's fantasy

instead we got twenty years in endless war

most of our history is endless war
most of my life is endless war

it's been pondered with
this administration that
our reichstag fire is near
that fascism will be brought
in, the gleam will fall out
of the eyes of democracy

I wonder if that reichstag fire
happened that september, we missed

It, didn't notice it in our collective

grief, our collective rage. the pump
primed, the military industrial complex took hold

now let us praise powerful men
they beat the drums again
there is only blood and money
to our history, no substance
all we are is the ash of endless war

 --Jason Baldinger