For the Soldier who was honored at the RNC

I have nothing to say for the Navy Seal
who threw his body on a grenade
and with the words, "Roger, that."
exited this world with muscles and
bones on the outside of his flesh.

His buddies lived.
If he had lived he would have seen
his story on the big screen
at the republican nat'l convention.

If he could have just saved an ear
to hear the music that narrated his life,
the noble Chopin, the brooding Beethoven.

If he could have just saved an eye
to see all the Navy Seals decorating his coffin
with the gold bits from their uniform
before it was lowered into the dirt.

As the rectangle of red,
white and blue waved on the screen
all the wives cried and all the
ex-service men and women
nodded their heads in agreement.
Country first. Country first.

Oh soldier, you are not just propaganda.
Your name was deleted from cell phones
when your classmates could no longer bare to see your name.
Your clothes were boxed up and dropped
off at the salvation army.
The last grocery list you wrote before you
were deployed is in your wife's jewelry box.
Your mother still cries and not just at night
during the dreams where bits her boy's body
float through an unfamiliar heat,
& land in the sand and on the faces
of the ones who lived.

You who fought in this man's army
are a tally mark in this new century.
a another victim in another war. I am sorry,
but I don't believe in heroes.