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