This happened to me
growing up behind
barbed wire fences
Air Force bases
my mind was
hollowed out
and inside was poured
nationalism
and militarism
I still see the old man
in Wiesbaden
with his fingers
wrapped around the
base fence
staring right at me
as we played
American baseball
in the middle of
his city
his eyes said
go home
The Lakota
whose land was taken
to eventually build
Ellsworth AFB
I learned to love
their drums
and the smells
of sage
I too enlisted
and marched
and saluted
but found the truth
and learned outrage
inside the barracks
as GI's
helped me take back
my own mind
and soul
The first thing that came to me was basic training for the military, in my case, the army. Powerful image.
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