Vet Kills Himself in Phoenix VA Parking Lot

If you want to hear a number that should rip your heart
It’s 22, the number of vets who daily from life choose to depart
Almost two thirds are over 50 and can no longer face the agony of life
Feeling abandoned by their nation, haunted by the memories of combat strife
How can young men and women continue to volunteer?
Only to return to be surrounded by memories and economic fears
From the invincibility of youth to shattered bones, emotions or hearts, like trash to discard
Littering the highways of prosperity, totally scarred
Almost like the Buddhist monks in Vietnam setting fire to themselves to a war protest
A 53 year old vet killed himself in the Phoenix VA parking lot where in timely patient care the VA fails the test
Living in a shelter receiving $130 a month, he must have been partially disabled
Perhaps from physical wounds or unseen and unattended emotionally unstable
A note was left but the contents seem not to have yet been revealed
Unknown if he was on the waiting list, the time of which the VA tried to conceal
Only that another Vet has died and joined the casualties of war
While the VA seems to care very little on their suffering anymore
The new head MacDonald with credentials from the business world that seemed top notch
It terms of reform seems to have joined a long list of Secretaries that when it comes to reform he has botched
Ironic that the news today while veterans continue to get short shrift and must always wait

Six billion in waste at the VA reported; when it comes to waste the VA you cannot sate

The only silver lining as we see our vets suffer is the prophecy that VA care reveals
Having seen it firsthand, we mere mortals will never support the liberal wish of a single payer health deal.

© May 14 , 2015 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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