Alamo

[Leanne]

Casket that escaped, -- I am not convinced that "escaped" is the best word here. I expect you mean that it managed to survive despite the death inside/around it, and I wonder if "endured" might not work?
hollowed of bones
whose fingerprints paint
the leaves of live oaks;
beneath footsteps
you slept -- this sets the fort and its history apart from the world "above", at least for the time it managed to sleep, as if it only became worthy of recognition when someone realised he could make some money out of it

until the day they came
to your splintered door
with lips dripping compliments--
Legend of the Desert,
Pillar of Hope,
Cradle of Liberty. -- love the sarcasm here, made stronger by "lips dripping compliments"

They lured you from the clay
and dropped cages
of steel shadows
the moment you appeared. -- "steel shadows" being its history of warfare?

Scars, they covered like matches,
every tooth replaced,
every broken bone
removed;
under Texas sun
you sit,
exposed as a looted tomb,
face stolen
into calendars and matinees,
evening photographs
under a sleepless flag,
magnets, names, purses, textbooks,
names, ornaments,
names. -- the longer length of this strophe and that relentless list of gift-shop items and marketing spinoffs hits very hard, I like this a great deal

They have strapped
the city to your back
and laid a road to march,

leading with trumpets and drums
as if you had won a war, -- I feel like there should be ticker-tape

But go back,
shrine -- you could probably do without the break here and just shift the next line up to join it
of a lonely sun,
last record -- I feel the l-words get a little much here, and wonder if "final" might not work better than "last"?
of lives left
under paved fields;

return to open arms
of clay,
ones that rocked
everyone you knew
to sleep
when no wall or roof
could keep the soul
down.

I am completely able to empathise -- I hate seeing sites of battles or other monumental events littered with gift shops and turned into a place for tourists to say they've been. Even worse, they read the two paragraphs in the guide book and imagine they know everything there is to know, but god forbid they had to actually study an event in its true historical context without being able to take a happy snap and get a t-shirt.

I like this almost entirely as it is -- it's tempting to rub out the rawness, but I feel this is a subject that can do with a bit of discomfort.