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These scars I wear are my stripes 
These bullet holes, my stars 
I gargle on my own blood
So that you may gargle on your mouthwash 
Complaining that it is overpriced
and then slip quietly into bed
While I slip quietly into death
Never once thinking that this is overpriced
Dying for you, because you are more than worth it
But still I would like a little more when I march home
Than a disgusted stare at my missing arm while I buy my mouthwash 
For I didn't know that the bullets that my skin stretched across countries
To block from ravaging you was only worth a fifteen percent military discount 
I didn't know that all I would get on my door when I walked home from the airport alone 
Would be an eviction notice instead of a banner screaming "welcome home"
I didn't know it would be spit in the face by some and an aversion of eyes by the others
When I took my shirt off at the gym revealing the Jackson Polluck painting of bullet holes on my back 
I didn't know that you would be disgusted here
When it was heroic and brave there
I didn't know but now I know
And yet I would do it the same, all over again
For thousands of years, for millions of stares, for billions of strangers
Even after my skin has been burned and torn to only stripes
And pockmarked to only stars
I would raise my bloody body like a flag
And fight for you
Not just because I am an American,
But because that's what humans do

-anna sluder

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