I found this poem on the International War Veterans' Poetry Archives: War and its Consequences, a site where veterans' and their families can post poems about their experiences. The poem below was written in 1981 by Kelly Strong when he was in high school. It is a tribute to his dad who was a career marine and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. I think this poem speaks for itself this Memorial Day.
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE
I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze;
A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.
I looked a 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 is not 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.
No. Freedom is not Free!
Used with permission ©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong
You can contact him at kellystrong@aol.com
In Memoriam
FCP 1955-2001
Freedom is definitely not free and it is important to be reminded of that fact! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.
ReplyDelete~Jess
I'm very moved by this sorrowful poem, especially the part about unmarked graves in the sea. We mustn't take Freedom for granted.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Thank you for sharing this Alex. I’m researching members of my family at the moment. My great grandparents had eight sons fighting during world WW1. Three of them died as did one of their grandsons during the same conflict, so sad.
ReplyDelete