Phoenix VA Bonuses Pay While Vets Die From Delay

 From the Ashes of Blood Money Bonuses Will the Phoenix VA Rise Up from Its Ashes
There are many ways on how to a society judge
From its compassion to how long it may hold a grudge
From its willingness to listen or to close its ears and prejudge
From opportunities reserved for its elite or open to its lowest drudge
From the first class seats of life or to the steerage where many trudge
But of the tests one stands out, one you cannot fudge
In time of war when a nation calls upon its youth to die and bleed
A sacred covenant that for the survivors you care for their medical needs
In battlefields in recent past Medevacs meant the wounded had greater chances to survive
Only now waiting for months to see a doctor they cannot stay alive
In a Phoenix VA Hospital 40 vets waiting for an appointment for months not days
Died not on the battlefield but from these tragic delays
What is even more tragic, what should stir this nation's ire
The administrators may have cooked the books for bonuses while vets expired
Ironic that the head of the VA is a general who in combat has two Purple Hearts
Where was the sacrifice for the vets  motto to the staff to impart?
Thank God for doctors who to the Hippocratic Oath still adhere
Blew the whistle on the VA, to the administrators' well founded fears
If you want to feel the tears within well up
Feel your anger and sense of betrayal erupt
Watch the videos of the families in total grief
A loved vet due to delay could get not relief
So the wheels of investigation start slowly whether or not there were the dual lists
As to the administrators now on leave no quarter, such failings can no longer exist
We as a nation deserve better, to send our youth into harms way
We cannot then ignore when they then return and die due to delays

©May 3, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet