Bleed Me Like a Patriot
Flags rose at dawn, hands over hearts in ordered lines,
ritual stitched into morning, loyalty recited in design.
Bled for a patch of ground never truly mine,
drilled to call it honor, trained to blur the sign.
Pride was spoon-fed in sanctioned chants,
but the slogan inked over truth with every advance.
A patch pressed to my shoulder, a myth poured in the cup,
I drank deep the stories, never asked what I gave up.
Marched in formation, boots through rows of graves,
the lie whispered “sacrifice,” but it was politics that craved.
“You serve,” they barked, so I tried to stand,
but learned to taste the fraud in every command.
Sold my body for claps, for the crowd’s approval,
but was blamed as a traitor when I saw the removal.
They needed my silence, wanted my grief,
freedom wasn’t war–it was camouflage for a thief.
Victory is painted in red and white,
but every medal weighed down the night.
No one asked what freedom costs,
they just paved the dead in patriotic gloss.
Cheap cement over bones, stories redacted and bent,
the chorus of flags smothered dissent.
Bleed me like a patriot, salute my blood, erase my name,
wave the banner while reworking the frame.
Brand my soul, keep me under control,
call me free but tax my role.
I died for stories twisted in a ledger’s light,
while those who wrote the rules still profited out of sight.
This nation’s not built on a hero’s creed–
it’s the silence bought by every selfish need.
The myth is the mortar, denial the steel,
a parade of debt spun on the liberty wheel.
Justice was theatre, never truth in the end,
a parade lined with wallets, not brothers or friends.
They praised my valor, then slashed the pay,
left my brothers homeless as the crowds walked away.
Bleed me like a patriot–let my story rot,
shovel dirt and secrets into the plot.
You said it mattered, you said I won,
but now I suffocate beneath the loaded gun.
You never wanted freedom, not the kind that’s earned–
just a martyr to burn, a lesson never learned.
You needed someone else to die for the cause,
and left only silence where there once was applause.