Veterans Day Poem: Ode to the Absent Fallen

It's Veterans Day again (or Armistice Day, as my Great-Grandfather Ned would insist).  In honor of those who have served, those who have fought, those who have fallen, here is a piece of poetry I was inspired to write while visiting a cemetery not so long ago.

The flags flutter in the breeze,

symbols of memory,

of passed away dreams.

The heroes, the fallen,

those who have gone,

will a final rest ever truly be known?

I sit and I wonder

where have you gone?

Is it a far better meeting

or more a tribulation tone?

Will I know it all soon

or be condemned to ignorance

for the weeping we've sown?

For the days have gone too soon;

as I look at the stones

my mind hearkens back to you,

forever alone.

A day come and gone;

I'll miss you, you know,

but we'll someday find solace

in the truth we have known

I leave you with these words;

come back home.

Do something to honor a Veteran today.  We owe them!