Crystal Haze

Execute, execute, execute The door blows,

the room goes white Clear room one,

boots like thunder Smoke and shadow eat the light

There’s one man at the top of the stairs One more by

the kitchen frame My men are split between the angles And every

second has a name So I cut hard through the kitchen Then

turn back toward the stairs Hold the line between my brothers And

whatever waited there I don’t hear fear in that moment I hear

orders, breath, and rounds I hear Fallujah in the concrete I hear

boots across the ground By the time theater closes Four more shadows

lose their aim And the silence after thunder Never sounds the same

Return fire from the dark room

The whole wall answers back

Two go down in the first hard breath And the stairwell cuts

to black

Dusk, pull the light down Let the colors hold their line Stars

forward on my shoulder And the fallen on my mind We run

towards danger When the whole street turns to dust I am still

here, standing for them I am still here after dusk

Getting back to the FOB After doing some E4 shit Dust caked

up on

my armor Laughing

like we weren’t in it Hangar lights on body armor T-walls holding

back the night Bird line

humming in the distance Red lens cutting through the light

We were staging by the gear racks Checking straps and killing time

Secret Squirrel meant classified Need-to-know and down the line Maps were spread

across a crate top Call signs swallowed by the sound Down range,

you learn the difference Between standing tall and standing ground Somebody said,

“Why’s the sky blue?” Grinning through a mouth of dust “Because God

loves the infantry” And the joke belonged to us You slapped my

vest and said, “Got your six” Like a promise,

like a prayer Then the hangar doors came open And the desert

took the air

Dusk, pull the light down Let the colors hold their line

Stars forward

on my shoulder And the fallen on my mind We run towards

danger When the whole street turns to dust I am still here,

standing for them

I am still here

after dusk

Dusk,

pull the light down Let the room fall still and deep I

have stood for men in silence I have kept what I must

keep

Stars forward,

never

backward That is how we crossed the dust We run towards danger

We do what

honor asks of us

Dusk, pull the light down Let the colors hold their line Stars

forward on my shoulder And the

fallen on my mind

We run towards danger When the whole street turns to dust I

am still here, standing for them I am still here after dusk

Dusk, pull the light down Let the night receive the cost I

will carry what I carried I will

honor who we lost If the dark comes close around me Let

it find me standing up I am still here,

worn and breathing I am still here after dusk

Dusk, pull the light down

Let

the

colors hold their line

Stars forward

on my shoulder And the fallen on my mind We

run towards danger

When the whole street

turns to dust I am still here,

standing for them I am

still here after dusk

Forward Operating Base The night is almost blue I let the evening

hold the line

But it does not bury you I set your name down softly

Like a flag that never

folds Ooh

Stars forward after dusk