CLOY RICHARDS
Tears ©Cloy Richards
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS
Sweat
Drips down my forehead
Stinging and blinding in my eyes
Rolls off my cheek to the butt-stock of my M16
Sweat covered palms shove an older Iraqi man to the dirt
Sweat covered hands zip-tie him, gag him, and place a sandbag
over his head
Sweat falls of my chin onto him as I kick him in his chest
Sweat soaks into the handle of the axe I use to bludgeon him until
he shuts up and stops moving and now I am covered in
Blood
Squirts from the stump where the captain's hand used to be,
before the RPG hit
Blood pours from the hole in Richard's leg where shrapnel
has invaded
Blood runs down my hands as I try to cover the wound and
stop the bleeding
Blood and not much else are left after a car bomber hits, my friend,
Blood in my mouth as I bite my lip, praying the next mortar doesn't land in my fighting hole
Blood all over, once a 7 year old boy in Baghdad discovers what unexploded ordnance is
Blood all over his little sister as she holds him tightly, screaming,
and streaming down her cheeks are
Tears
Nowhere
No tears allowed in Iraq, suck it up Marine
No tears at a combat memorial service
No tears until you come home
Tears drown me as I lay in a cold bed, shaking and screaming
Blood, sweat, and tears being shed all over Iraq, all over America
The tears never stop, neither does the blood, but I don't sweat it.
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