I watched the flag pass by one day

It fluttered in the breeze

A young Soldier 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

 
Copyright 1981 By KellyStrong@aol.com
LCDR Kelly Strong, USCG