Veterans Day 2014

On Veterans Day 2014

 

Hot led balls from volleys of musket fire rip through the lines,

men fall on either side, some scream at the searing pain,

cannonballs tear arms and legs from bodies,

faces you know vaporize, still you struggle on,

 

across battlefields, through bayous, across plains and deserts,

freedom secured here, now go, into tropical mush

where malaria rises like steam, out across the world,

where screaming men thrust steel into your hearts,

 

cavalry charges give way to rolling tanks, rolling thunder

and thunder from the skies, death from above and

death from the juggernauts at sea, defiant, adamant,

you own the waves, the air, the land, in the name of hope,

 

freedom, of the people, by the people, for the people,

don't lose hope when the people don't remember,

they do, some do, enough to stand up, salute,

enough to shake your hand and say thank you.

 

 

Robert L. Vogel

Knoxville, Veterans' Day 2014