Poem: I'm Just a Veteran

by Corporal Cloy Richards (watch his speech):

what can I do?
I'm just a veteran
what can I say?
im not a real american
never worked a real job
joined the marines at age seventeen
never even paid taxes
only made minimum wage
a dollar sixty-six an hour
to have mortars blowing up in my face
and a lifetime of guilt and a lifetime of rage
to live with the rest of my days
i hope god forgives me for my ways
i only lived to serve
and pay homage and stay true
to the red white and blue
i ain't black but i understand the price that they paid
nah I wasnt given AIDS, raped or made a slave
but I've been kicked to the curb, kicked in the ribs,
and spit in my face
all from a common enemy, what a disgrace
how dare lady liberty shit on our graves
I watch my best friend get blown to pieces
then watch the monkeys on capitol hill throw us
around like feces
goddamn please, i deserve more respect than that
when it rains i can still feel the schrapnel in my back
i hear an explosion it takes me right back, to march
two thousand and three
look at me, i'm the poster boy for insanity
cuz i've killed so many innocent iraqi's
but how would you feel
you think you could deal
with this pain I call life
I doubt it, you might could try
but end up on the wrong end of a bottle and end up
ending yo life
and then where would you be
you'd be halfway to killing yourself
the same place as me