We walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
For mother and country we walked angry, afraid, and insane,
my brothers and I, with precision in our sweaty hands
and fire and brimstone in our steely arms.
We raised the jungles to their desolation,
we gutted cities and cured their ivory flesh
with the incendiary purification of our wrath.
Each of us tempted by celluloid Heroes and Icons,
were obligated by Faith, Duty and Patriotism
to draft our futures into the doctrines and manuscripts of idealism.
All of us, vainly rationalizing our reasons,
whistling away the Fears, Death and Pestilence,
gripped feverishly our shreds of sanity and countenance.
Day and Night we laid ourselves down to kiss the Earth
clad in our invisibility, questioning or invincibility,
our courage shoulder to shoulder before the Heavens
to pave the manifest highway across political deserts.
For our children's proud chested history.
For the fleeting promise of their sure footed future.
For Civility. For Culture. For Destiny.
For our star spangled stature.
