Scouts Out Graduation
I�d been listening to Bob Dylan for three straight days,
"John Brown," "With God on Our Side," and "Masters of War,"
all the classics about tyranny that make me sad and angry,
The lyrics wash over me and I wonder what it�s all for,
The next day I went to see a friend graduate from Basic Training,
so I was in South Carolina and saw Fort Jackson,
it was all stone and bare brick, surrounded by barbed wire,
The soldiers, locked in like criminals, were practicing for action,
I watched as my friend had to stop and salute,
drill sergeants and every superior making him stand at attention,
Not a beret askew or a button undone, or else!
and I thought that this obsequiousness was a strange invention,
I read rule upon rule that brainwashed men into control,
I saw them in uniforms that stripped away identity,
marching in formation, directed like puppets by their master,
And I couldn�t fathom why you�d sell your soul to be in the military,
By orders, those soldiers had trained hard in the heat,
and dehydrated, six of them fell, even before battle, to die,
But we must have the strongest forces in the world,
to send to foreign wars, and I had to ask myself why,
Discipline and dominance, tear you down to keep you pliant,
I wondered how much a person could take after a while,
Three hours off base for my friend to have his wedding,
congratulations from officers, but without a smile,
Off base leave day�no smoking, no drinking, can�t even drive,
and all the shackles on my friend�s life made my heart sink,
Back on base, I saw rows and rows of bunk beds in the barracks,
This was the real sight that made my frozen mind start to think,
Crammed in narrow quarters, mentally beaten, and ordered around,
no individuality or personal rights, body now government property,
Can�t have caffeine, or step on this emblem, or even walk in the grass,
All I could think of the more I saw was, �This looks a lot like slavery.�
I watched the soldiers obey without question or personal thought,
I saw a platoon marching, they were singing songs of war,
the chant was about righteousness but also destruction,
They were proud to be fighters, and it made my heart sore,
At the graduation, I heard a chaplain pray for our troops,
he asked a blessing for only our country and talked a lot about peace,
I was surprised lightning didn�t strike him down for praising trained killers,
And sat in silent horror, wondering if the fighting ever would cease,
I saw a field of young people pledge themselves to battle and death,
and I bit my lip to see, and wondered if they knew what they had done,
for together the regiments all looked like a single demolition machine,
and it seemed to me that each person had lost and the government had won,
The new soldiers had three wars to choose from�two new or the same old one,
and six million ways to die for the bloody ideals of our country,
And I cried for my friend and all the women and men,
who were so proud to be graduating into the American army.