Welcome Home

If I say to you, 'thank you'
do you hear me through your pain
your flashbacks still haunt you
beyond the patriotic refrain

My return back in the seventies
not a voice or hand extended
lungs still filled with agent orange
and the napalm smell offended

inculcated surreptitious motivations
of sacrifices upholding liberties
Communism, arms of mass destruction
fear replaces truth's entreaties

trust is garnered by a leader
from sons, daughters, husbands, wives
to dispense an ideology of democracy
interfering in a nation's sovereignty,
asking for the sacrifice of lives

we bring them home from hell
a feigned handshake and nod
give them alcohol and a pain pill
without insurance or a job

we bring them back to families
whose children now have grown
sitting at their dining table
surrounded by little faces now unknown

we've now brought them back
another war wrapped in a lie
how many more Vietnams and Iraqs
so much more 'life' must die

the world view of America
is hypocracy of Christianity
conjuring reasons for making war
and our politicians saying to our soldiers,
an unrepentant, 'Welcome Home'