~~¤~~

One day you will see
How beautiful the star in my hand
That star I once dreamed to touch
The one I want you to hold

~~¤~~

Wearing down
Less steady now
From mortal wounds of old.
Not the way in younger days,
when my guard would never falter.

Furrowed brow
now worried how my heart will fair it alone,
without the gates nor keeper waiting
to fend off who gets over.

Sword and shield may not reveal
this man of flesh and bone.
I can tell those tears that fell
by the rust-stains down his armor.

At ease, at ease.

I'm ready.
I'm open.
I am willing to be broken.
I can feel her hands unfolding
each petal around my heart,
I can feel
the changing of the guard.

The mothers all cry
For the last baby down.
The protestors try
but there is no one around.
They all yell from the streets
but they can't make a sound.
All you hear are the feet-pounding
hungry war hounds.

I doubt that there's been
a more dangerous foe.
When it's fear we're afraid of
our fear feeds it more.
When you're freedom's at risk
then that freedom must go.
It's a paradoxical, sick, un-winable war.

SO
SALUTE
Hey YOU!
Do you have a problem with that?
I can't HEAR YOU SOLDIER,
fall in or fall flat.
We support what your forefathers said you stood for,
But their words hold no weight anymore.

Now all is so quiet
on the western frontier.
The purveyors of "RIGHT"
a whole two hundred years.
We're the STRONGEST
the PROUDEST
WORLD'S BIGGEST cliche.
But never mind, even Rome
didn't fall in one day.
And still the mothers all cry for the last baby down.