One Last Beer

by flammeusgladius

One Last Beer

 

(for John Wesley Garner)

 

“You can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”

 

–Robert Heinlein.

 

Well, Barrister, you took them out—

The ones my bullets didn’t reach.

Together, friend, we left no doubt:

Even the dead at last can teach.

We had a lesson then for each.

Shot and explosion, how they learned!

It ain’t no stroll along the beach

When final freedom is discerned.

Free men get broken, crushed, and burned.

Free men get tortured, too, and see

That freedom in the end is earned

Through nothing less than agony.

Valhalla’s air is cold and clear.

It’s time at last we had that beer.

 

–Tom Riley

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