Hypocrite & The Fragile Mind

The heart I wear is not purple

Too many families, spouses, and mothers
Lose sons and daughters in combat
For unidentified cause
For senseless killing,
Self-sacrifice for the self

The war drafts en masse
We all fight the same enemy
And too many brothers and sisters
Lost in combat.

People don’t like to talk about It
Newspapers try to glorify It
Undermining those who have been through It

Nobody chooses to go into the trench
And nobody is willing to go into the trench voluntarily,
To save their brother.

Those who desert think it’s the easy way out
But nobody likes to talk about how they treat you when you do
Some place the blame on the enemy
Others speak in hush tones of abandoning the fight

People don’t like to talk about suicide

I didn’t ask to go to war
Yet I was drafted, all the same

Sent to the trenches
There I sat holding breath
Knowing the enemy waited at ground level
Waited to put me six feet under
Waited to force my hand in aid

I waited in the trenches,
Waited for the war to end
Waited for letters from home,
But the letters never came

But the heart I wear is not purple
It’s a heart that’s scarred and bleeding

There are no badges of honor to those who make it out of the trench
Alive.

The living prefer to glorify the dead
Than acknowledge those who make it out
Those who look death in the eyes for years
Those who face death with acceptance but still make it out

You lose your value when you make it out alive.

If I wanted a badge of honor,
I’d have succumbed to the enemy

For this enemy is darkness
Occupier of thoughts

But now I occupy the enemy territory

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Emma Tysinger 2018