THEY WILL NEVER RETURN

Our brothers and our sisters in Iraq
Our children, are gone
and will never return.

Their bodies will come back
With their hearts blown out
Or they will come back

With their minds blown out
Or their souls blown out
& we’ll either bury them and cry

Our tears and say goodbye
And feel bad from time to time
Or we’ll kid ourselves

That someone will be there
Their whole long miserable lives
To help them straighten back out

Knowing all along it won’t be us
Or thinking it will, wanting it to be
Until someone mentions time

& money, until it becomes clear
That from our first act of violence
To our last, we sold them out

Worse than we could ever bear
To face, much less admit:
They might come back, but

Our brothers and our sisters in Iraq
Our children, are gone
And will never return.