Endowed

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Because our country remains at war
there are no time outs, no coffee breaks.

Instead, the nervous edge toward neurotic.
The remote pilots of unmanned predator drones

suffer a higher rate of post traumatic stress disorder
than front line troops who feel the rush of bullets

spin by their faces and deal with blood
pumping from their comrades’ wounds.

Who builds monuments to the deer
blown to pieces by five hundred pound bombs?

Whose prayers are answered when a herd of sheep
is sacrificed to indiscriminate machine gun fire?

In the hospital ward and orphanages, one legged girls
pair with new friends who lost the other leg

for the purpose of purchasing pink shoes
on the small support allowance endowed.