Surrender Under Protest

by Mike Cooley

From the comfort zone of history
On the lips of trusted loved ones
To the wounded fragile minds of angry youth
No sooner was it over
Than the memory made it nobler
A selective means by which to point the view

If it's all you can remember
Then it's been that way forever
And for six long generations it's been told
That among the fallen was tradition
That tradition was the mission
That the wrongness of the sin was not the goal

Does the color really matter
On the face you blame for failure
On the shaming for a battle's losing cause
If the victims and aggressors
Just remain each other's others
And the instigators never fight their own

Compelled but not defeated
Surrender under protest if you must
Compelled but not defeated