A
Sonnet for Memorial Day
We're
here to honor those who went to war
Who
did not wish to die,
but
did die grievously in 1861, 2009,
though
they were peaceable as you or me.
Young
and cheerful, knowing little of horror,
singers
and athletes, and all in all well-bred.
good
sergeants, turned them into warriors,
and
at the end they were moving straight ahead.
As
we look at these headstones row on row on row,
Let
us see them as they were, laughing and joking
on
that bright, irreverent morning long ago,
and
once more, let our hearts be broken.
God
have mercy on them for their unhappy gift.
May
we live the good lives they would have lived.
"We
sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence
on those who would do us harm."
- George Orwell
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