Memorial Day 2020 Poem

In Honor of all Those who Served

​We sent them off
Flags waving, bands playing
To defend our shores,
To claim new lands,
To banish tyranny and evil.
Or, even, once,
To sew the country
Back together.
But we were never ready
When they returned
One at a time
From distant places
Damaged on our behalf.
Some came back
Missing pieces, left,
In haste and violence,
On some battlefield,
Rarely remembered by us.
Some came back
But left intangibles,
Minds affected like
The bodies of their buddies.
And some came back
As only a memory,
A paper apology for our loss,
Of course, only a tiny
Loss compared to that of he or she
Who never will come back.
Once a year, today,
We wave those flags,
Bands play, speeches are made
And we remember
Those we sent off
Without being ready
For them to return.