My longest stay had been a year
Of grinding time in lowest gear.
Asylums say the stay today
Is but three months then on your way.

So please don't ask me why oh why
Do mad old ones choose youth to die?
For I've learned not one single grain
Insightful to my own insane.

But madness dragged me back inside
To share black air wrapped suicide'
When my dear friend, though mad at best,
Chose 42 for his last rest.

Lifelong depression won the day
That "black dog" stole his soul away.
And then another friend from Nam
When ten years home was one night gone.

In Nam with pistol worn in sight
He'd fly his Hueys to the fight
To pluck up wounded stuck so dire
Then fly too high for hostile fire.

No matter when or where they fall,
Their names belong upon the wall.
How many Vets their balls still bent
Died prone alone on cold cement?

The naked act of will to kill
Brought some men home for killin' still,
Like those who went with troubled souls
Found napalm lies too full of holes.

A gallant soldier fights till dead
Too often for past lies he's fed.
Now who among you disagrees
Wars fill our horrid histories.

No matter where or what you do
Some leaders find a war for you
To fight until that war is done,
A war thier lies had first begun.

As we leave every century
Still bleeding with hostility
Can insights deep within the Yin
Begin the Yang's defeat of sin?