Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy Independence Day, America

(author unknown)
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 died on foreign soil;
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 the 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.
 -------

Staff Sgt. John Beale Died So You Would Be Free Today

 

1 comment:

Findalis said...

Have a safe Fourth Holger. I'll put a steak on the grill for you. You provide the drinks.