Prisoners of War

Drafted to the frontlines

Nut up when it’s crunch-time

Survival of the fittest

Rather die than be in prison

War crimes on the daily

Blood money is how they pay me

History repeats itself

The purpose defeats itself

The government deployed us

So the world could exploit us

Turning fathers to troops,

Is like napalm to the youth

Strictly loyal to the code

This is the only life I know

Dreams of living another

Soiled by losing a brother

Boiled down to just a figure

Itchy finger on the trigger

I can see the pain in his eyes

No room for us to cry

No grace to take a breather

This isn’t his war either

I connect as a person

But it’s death for desertion

So before I make him a martyr

I say a prayer for his daughter

Asking God for impunity

Genocide to the community

Endorsed by the president

The media sets the precedent

They rope us in with the news

But they choose what we view

Fixed from the opening bell

Digging deeper opening Hell

Their war, they brought us along

Guerrilla tactics worse than a bomb

We fund the cycle of infinite hatred

The enemy suffers for generations

Streets paved over the corpses

Officials bribed with extortion

I can see through smoke & mirrors

It’s their hope that they fear us

Foreign land but America’s what I bleed

Kids see dead bodies before they can read

PTSD is relentless

Still my only home is the trenches

Made me who I am today

Almost whole with a hand grenade

Three tours and my humanity’s gone

In life we never plan to be wrong

But what’s it mean to be right?

Fighting with fiends in the night

Citizens to combatants

Trade integrity for status

Trade limbs for medals and glory

The hero depends on the story

The villain depends on the truth

The fight doesn’t end when we shoot

That stigma sticks and weighs us down

Walk in my shoes and they’ll drown

Our service seen as complaints

We’ve got regrets we’re not saints

Grey areas outline my tragic life

But mostly the issue is black and white