(For Chaos God and all Soldiers and Vets)


don't call us heroes

your intentions are good
but the label is an invocation
of memories we never gathered by choice,
a stigma of shattered innocence
that we're stuck with now forever.

we were sent to lands we never
studied about in geography class,
performed duties that sickened us
by someone else's command.

sometimes I hear the voices
of those who didn't come home.
you know what they say?


-*-   we don't want to be dead heroes.   -*-   
-*-   we just want our bodies back,         -*-          
-*-   want to be with our mothers,         -*-                                                          
-*-   our wives, maybe kids, too.             -*-              
-*-   just regular joes, living through        -*-         
-*-   the crap like everyone else.             -*-               
-*-   Listen...we'd trade all our medals      -*-             
-*-   for that.                                          -*-