Mass Production
by Vi Ransel
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 10, 2006



 

Records confirm C-141 Starlifters

ascend from Ramstein on well-timed flights

arriving ten hours later at Dover airbase

under cover ----------------- of the night.

There will be no national day of mourning.

The Capitol will not dim its lights

to show respect for over 2300 returned

under cover ------------------ of the night.

Stricken citizens will not line a cortege route

as flag-draped coffins proceed for interment

past a full dress military honor guard

to the embrace of Arlington's earth.

No lone bugler will bid them rest well with "Taps".

They will receive no twenty-one-gun salute.

It is presidential policy not to attend

the military funerals of our fallen youth.

Parents ask no elaborate state funerals,

but only the public recognition

that America acknowledges and values

the sacrifice of their beloved children.

The Starlifter war-machine conveyor belt goes on

dumping our war dead unceremoniously after each flight.

I can hear them calling "Don't forget me here

under cover ------------------------ of the night."

If the ideals for which we sacrifice

our youth reflect a truly noble fight

and we truly appreciate our military's valor

and truly grieve as they pay the ultimate price,

why are our fallen heroes smuggled home

under cover ----------------------- of the night?

Vi Ransel lives in New York, and can be reached at: rosiesretrocycle@yahoo.com.

Other Poems by Vi Ransel

* Pictures of Iraq
* DUH?
* MOLOCH
* Sumeriology
* Poor in America -- P.I.A.
* The Treadmill
* The Driver

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