reduction of the “hero”

sees him on television
marching in the shows that
glorify war by painting so-called
“heroism,” as anything but
being hired killers.

sees her in the advert prior to
the violence ridden film, when
the life of a soldier in the
american military comes with
a rock song behind it &
a pastiche of bringing clean
water, holding babies, smiling
with their thumbs up &
palling around for photo ops
with those lucky people afar
(who’ve been left poor, starving
& eradicated by the pummeling
which they took at the hands
of the world’s policeman,
because they just wouldn’t
give up their resources to the
planned rape in return for
“democracy’),
thinking
“oh, what a romantic way to
show love for my country &
get money for college so I
can make something of myself.”

gets support from brainwashed
family & friends
(who are still terrified that their
loved one is going away to kill &
be a target for those who are sick
of policeman showing up on their
doorstep to kill),
looks sexy in a uniform
(ooh la la),
feels that they are more brave &
more patriotic than those around
them, who will not sign on the
dotted line, who will not
“fight for their country” (digesting
that last complete confusion of
priorities, leaving those who love
her/him to go & kill for the state that
has kept them poor to begin with).

what happens on the tour
stays on the tour &
don’t think for a second that you
won’t be going back---
as property of the policeman of the
world, you have obligations
&
when you come home,
you end up working as an overnight
clerk,
at a Pathmark in New Jersey,
no more a “hero” than the kid stoned
out of his gourd,
stocking the shelves with soup cans
on his knees in aisle 12.

so you leave work,
get your AK-47 &
your .45 caliber handgun
as quick as possible,
so that when you return
you can randomly open fire on your
coworkers 16 times or so,
before putting a gun to your own
head---
lucky that the military had been there
for you, in your time of need,
reeling you in when you were young,
so it could teach you to
kill.