Obituary of a POW

My body was lost somewhere in the blue of the flag
Riding silent on a passenger plane like a gut shot stag
Tears falling over me somewhere in a terminal chair
Leaving Afghanistan my soul was frozen in the glare

I was a coalition force asleep in the arms of the Taliban
An envoy of force impaled in a land I didn’t understand
Abu Ghraid was the reason they broke all of my bones
My government couldn’t have left me more alone

When I lost the light in the room, before I started to die
I felt something moving slowly across my closed eyes
I saw a Shia sunrise over a spilt open electrical cord
I thought I heard America The Beautiful miss a chord


- Chris Mansel