Requisition Of The Purple Heart
When blood soaks through a uniform-
it's a loss of life.
When blood soaks through the desert sands-
those are promises to keep
Regardless of worldwide consequence
This obligation must persist
Your "sanctity of family"
is the preciousness of rape.
The warmth of cold, hands
around our neck.
One can only wonder-
Will the ones alive today,
be forced to sip from separate water
like the slaves of prior pasts?
I smell the stench of Jim Crow
rotting through the walls!
No blood is legal tender
their blood is not negotiable
their remains-
heroic and cremated
are not a ballot smoke screen.
When blood soaks through a uniform
it's a loss of life.
Those are promises to keep!
This ends fucking now!
I'm an American who fought for his country. Who'd have ever guessed the first American wounded was a gay Marine? I had fought and nearly died to secure rights for others that I myself was not free to enjoy.
---Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva