Shock and Awe, Coming Back Home

My friends come home draped in flags I pause at the edge of the airplane door Facing a tunnel leading me to a muffled joy Strangers tell me I am related to them... I deny a woman with three kids... her kiss My friends are slipping in trucks with flags They are loaded and back doors explode shut... .............................................................. I wake up in a trench of blood and clean pillows The same woman from the airport next to me Peacefully breathing...and I thought she was dead... I think I am finally home, fans are not propellers Camouflage doesn't bear swing sets in backyards My friends' helmets, guns and boots line up in my head Patrolling with weapons made of aluminum foil ------------------------------------------------- There is too much silence for a dead soldier walking... I think I FEEL the kiss of the woman with three kids ...