In their own words, American Soldiers

From an article in Sunday's New York Times, Warrior Voices, poetry and other writing by American Soldiers in the Middle East:

The Writing on the Wall

Nervous sweat sanctifies
The temples of the born-again
As Kevlar-fitted troops ascend
In C-130s to rapturous
Jet streams that cradle
And wash over the innocence
Of a civilization.

The tarmac softens their disciplined boots
And Iraq welcomes God’s children —
Prisoners of war —
To the great temptation.

Children stalk men
As it was written
Under the bright-black night
Where tracer rounds race to meet shooting stars.

Somewhere, a hand that shakes
From the sight of a sacrificial lamb
Hung from the bridge
Of an overpass outside of Fallujah
Reproduces a shot group
That blots out the eye of the needle.

Whizzing sniper rounds speak
To the righteous
And unprophesized I.E.D. blasts
Pass them over.
Isaiah’s marred Assyrian road
Imprints itself upon their souls.

Boots hardened through baptism
In the sands of Ur.
Stilt shaky legs and dilated pupils
Called upon to witness.
Confused tongues fail to articulate
Shattered minds, leaving them,
Instead, as burnt offerings
At the spiraling staircase of Babel.

Revelation comes in the transubstantiation
Of anti-psychotics —
Self-medicated migraines escalate with communion wine —
Passed around
As false manna at V.A. hospitals.
Concussed remembrances of innocence
Create a nervous sweat
For those who look back to Babylon
And fail to read the writing on the wall.

More here:   Warrior Voices - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com