Entered upon wings, Left in boxes and bags

“An equation: 40,000 dead young men = 3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain matter, 50,000 gallons of blood, 1,840,000 years of life that will never be lived, 100,000 children that will never be born (the last we can afford: there are too many starving children in the world already).”   Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun

The youth of a nation
The pride worthy of
Every celebration
Was called to be
The sacrificial lamb
For the cause
Of empire
Yet this cremation
The firestorm's ashes
Could not give back
The bodies turned black
Only ashes in bags in caskets
Because the inferno burned
Destroying every single dream
Every ideal
Every goal
No matter
The size
No matter
Which regime

They should have been
Our most prized
Our most privileged
The finest vintage
The wine of the culture
The finest of vintage
Poured out
Upon the hard ground
Draining to the depths
Of Hades
With fire and sulfur
We gained nothing
For empire
We gained nothing
For family or village
Only sorrow
And rape
And pillage

This post is not a condemnation of those who served.  It is a condemnation of the warriors in congress and the White House who send others to war without a speck of conscience worrying for who will die, and the consequences for the country being attacked.