We’re digging mass graves on army bases
Smearing mud over innocent faces
There is a war within a war
A war they won’t show on the news
Not that that’s new…
There’s a war within a war
On International Women’s day
March 8th
I learned about the war for gender equality in the military
Rape and sexual assault running rampant among ‘battle buddies’
Girls won’t go to get water alone,
A scared sweaty hand clutching switch blade
Because you’d never point your gun at a fellow soldier
And army of one
Fucking itself over
Girls won’t go alone to get water
In 120 degree desert weather or warmer
They start to die slowly of dehydration in their sleep
Surgeons stop listing dehydration as a cause of death of women soldiers in their briefings
Tongues dry
Vomit stained and empty
They are shipped back home in coffins as heroes instead of casualties
Flag draped over like covering the knees, still pried open
Please
More than 160,000 women have served in Iraq
More than every other war, combined, to this day
Imagine 160,000 faces in uniform with 90% having been assaulted
30% raped
Purple hearts with permanent scars, and faces you can’t take or live remembering
Imagine a fighter being more fearful of who their fighting with
Rather than their assigned enemy
Guerilla polygamy
A gender
Becoming more dangerous than incoming fire
Keeping silent for the benefit of the team
The effort, the dream, muted screams
Killing and being killed
A war within a war
It seems the homeland and the battleground share the same open wounds
They house the same maggots, gun powder, and red white and blue bruises surrounding
But no matter what continent, unwanted spit tastes the same
Like veins being emptied or just dying from the inside
It dries like sand into your skin
Rough and seeping down to the bone
Mixing into your marrow, making its home in you forever
A sin among sinners
Barracks becoming catacombs where young women rot
Ones who just wanted a chance at an education or future
Not to be taken prisoner on their own side
The veterans, deadlocked in mirrors, starring into their own eyes
A reflection of a camouflaged nightmare
Vile with nothing sacred spared
Nothing to win— and we’re still all locked and loaded in each other’s cross-hairs
As we’re digging mass graves on army bases
Smearing mud over innocent faces
There is a war within a war
A war they won’t show on the news
Not that that’s new
But there’s a war within a war
A war within a war
A war within a war