Iridescent Voyage

Execute, execute, execute The door blows,

the room goes white Clear room one,

boots like thunder Smoke and shadow eat the light 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

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

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

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