CALL IT DUTY

sh’-sh’-sh’ shoot me

call it duty

put that phallic/ metallic/ weaponry

to my head

reboot me

this feels unreal, stage-managed

for the flat screen

patrols scrolling through the same scenes

ketchup reds, Technicolor greens

overshot, the tired fatigues

props from a Hollywood lot

we’re here to keep the peace

but you can’t keep

what you’ve never seen

enemies in trees

the only peace they want

is a piece of me

when did I last sleep?

sleep is for the weak

must be weeks

break the programming

every step a command

urged on by unseen hands

strange how the word pacifist

terminates in fist

untwist that taloned hate

straighten as a flower

aim toward the sun

depetal your digits

one by one

let go the gun

did I sign up for this?

some dumb kid

swayed by snake-oil recruiters

and a flashy vid

a small town where no one

amounts to spit

go see the world

and shoot at it

drafted?

deemed fit and able

by a cabal of grey men

massed around a table

who wouldn’t put

their own sons forward

to get ordered

captured

tortured

fighting a country

of which I know nothing

for a country

I no longer believe in

one that would rather

change the channel

than deal with the grieving

when everything you love

is everything you hate

everything you love is hate

AWOL

free of control- consoled

I stroll down

bombed-out streets

in civilian gear

finger hovering on a trigger

somewhere near

you think you can just play with life?

a dozen shootings before breakfast time

wipe the redcurrant jam from the knife?

step outside, throw the curtains wide

Columbine

Virginia Tech

Newtown

where next?

not in my name

sh’-sh’

it’s just a game

just a game

copyright Ash Dickinson