America (I am blind to your virtues)

I have seen
What I have not seen
The nightmare vision
Of homeless soldiers
Washing their feet
In the fountains of Malibu
As the flashy cars of millionaire Middle East philanthropists
Pass them by

I have seen
The ragged trousered soldiers
Panhandling on the streets of Manhattan
Throwing quarters back in the faces
Of wealthy brokers hurrying
Back from billion dollar deals
Millions for distant kith and kin in the Promised Land
Coins for derelict soldiers, the unwashed of unchosen people

I have heard their curses
And seen their bloody eyes
As they approach the politicians
Hurrying from lunch
Demanding a dollar
For a bottle of tokay
In the streets of Baghdad

Baghdad swagger, turned vagabond
Stumble
Barking orders, turned sullen silence
Heroes: patriot, true American
Uncelebrated schizophrenics
Mentally disturbed, trauma ridden
Suicide prone
Losers, lost survivors
Sound in body and limb
With scrambled brains
Unscarred bodies
With permanent
Brain lesions.

The vagrant vagabonds’ howl
the year end bonuses soar
For the successful brokers
While the shrewd real estate genius, arrogant casino owners
Finance the armchair generals
Draft dodger lifers
Finance the new wars,
And the ultimate beneficiaries
Far from the streets
Where soldiers wander aimlessly
With bloodshot memories
Of bloody walls
And floors and eyeless faces
Where have our buddies with the bloody stumps,
Fingerless arms and eyeless faces gone?
Those who have nothing to wash
In the fountains of Malibu.

 

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