Memorial Day

I watched the flag pass by one day it fluttered in the breeze.

A young marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, So tall, So proud,

With hair cut square and eyes alert

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,

When everything was still,

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That Taps had meant Amen.

When a flag had draped a coffin.

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children

Of mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard at the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.
~Author Unknown~

Thank you to all the men and women who sacrificed their lives so that ours can remain free!