The construction of destruction
Was walking by a truck
with a bumper sticker
that read” Freedom has a
taste that the protected
will never know.”
Seemed profound.
Until I looked at the driver
and saw that
he couldn’t have been
any older than 50.
Which made me wonder
about the last time
we truly fought for freedom.
Anyone who’s ever
played
Risk
or Axis & Allies
understands the
difficulty
in capturing a
strategic foothold
in this country
of ours.
The only possible
invasion from Mexico
is through the restaurant
kitchens and construction yards
along our borders,
armed with their culinary skills
and mechanical inclination.
From everything
I’d read about Nam
it wasn’t our fight
to begin with.
Often referred to
as unfortunate
and unnecessary.
WWII is arguably
the last real fight
for freedom
involving this great
country,
more about
seizing the role
of superpower
than saving Jews
from the sadistic
Nazi party krauts.
As much as an afterthought
as Lincoln freeing
the slaves?
Imagine the horror
of opening the
daily papers and
seeing the blitzkrieg
gain momentum
capturing Europe
one city at a time.
I was at home
with flu,
lying in bed
during the first
Gulf War Invasion.
I was 12 years old
and my 103 degree
fever
left me wondering
if I’d suffered brain damage.
Surely what
I was watching
on TV wasn’t
real.
I’d had no concept
of real violence
or war and started crying
thinking the
end was near.
That WWIII
was underway
while Peter Jennings
read the names
of the American Allies
off the teleprompter.
The world
was involved
but it wasn’t
in fact
a world war.
It wasn’t
the terror
of seeing missle silos
go up an open
in the 1960’s
in territories
like New Mexico,
Nevada,
west
and north
Texas.
Watching
those
snakey lights
shoot
into
all those
buildings.
Splashes
of fireworks
and volcanic
sparks of energy,
as the reporters
talked of things
that I couldn’t
quite grasp.
It all seems
like
some sick feverish
dream that
never completely
ended.
~Edward Austin Robertson~
Nuclear Polio Vaccination 