Was It Worth It?

Our country was built on our thirst for freedom,
Built on the spilt blood of those who fought for us,
A battle unfairly fought and but rightly won,
Cries of victory drifting on the free flowing breeze,
The land of the free vivid and fresh

We are no longer vivid, nor are we fresh,
Blood is still spilt, but for what cause?
Is it for freedom or greed?
Are the lives lost worth losing?
Do the families in pain deserve the heartache?

I look around and what I see ties knots in my heart,
A gas station on one corner,
A strip club on the next,
A sunken-faced man with his emaciated dog,
Watching a woman devour a Big Mac

Profanity flies out the window of a car,
Neighbors flip each other the bird,
People get killed in drunken bar fights,
Glaring and staring are one and the same,
Hostility is the new hospitality

Police and ambulance sirens are the next Beethoven’s 9th,
The knock on a soon-to-be widow’s door is all too recognizable,
Funeral parades and obituaries clog the newspapers,
A gun in a household is like a flower in a vase,
Murder is a conversational piece

The flag waves soullessly,
Time stands still,
Land of the free,
Home of the brave,
A life lived in fear

Was it worth it?