Memorial Day Remembrance

My grandparents took me to a moving Memorial Day service three years ago. This poem was inspired as I watched a handful of veterans stand up for a few moments to be honored, my grandfather included, and as I meditated on those who endured and those who did not.

For a moment you stand; we give you praise
For how you’ve served us in your days
And on this day we remember you
Though most of us have not a clue

Together we honor those who died
Guarding fierce the pilgrim’s pride
Some willing, some not, and most afraid
Of how high could be the price they’d pay

Grandpas, brothers, even sisters, mothers
Giving lives on behalf of others
Lives spent on the fields of war
Some not knowing what the fight was for

How many of you are now amiss?
You whose graves we bow and kiss
We know your fight was not in vain
Yet we can’t measure the cost in pain

I recall the words of a teacher well
When he stared at us and said “war is hell”
As a boy enthralled with Grandpa’s tales
I didn’t know all that they entailed

Bullets, bombs, and blades that killed
And blood of many guiltless spilled
The toll not only those who were slain
But cost in grief for those who remain…


The songs are sung, the flags are raised
Heroes alive and dead are praised
The guns are fired in the air
And we honor you with a prayer:

God, don’t forget the tears that flow
Every time the bugle blows
And don’t neglect those who wince
At the firing squad’s remembrance

Help us to consider well
Those who mourn and those who fell
And to remember that the life we live
Came by sacrifice we did not give

-B