Memorial Day Salute

                                      Charlie, Tommy, and Marvin Griffin   1946

                                                      Mike Cummings 1986


I watched the flag pass by one day                             
It fluttered in the breeze
A young Infantry Soldier saluted it
And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud
With his hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in a crowd.

How many pilot's plane shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?                     
No FREEDOM is not free.

I heard the sounds of Taps one night
When everything was still
I listened to the buglar play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant Amen
When a flag had covered a coffin
Of a father, 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!

Author Unknown