Pamela Copeman » A Poem & A Painting: Memorial Day

A Poem & A Painting: Memorial Day

May 30 2016 · 0 comments · A Poem & A Painting, My Paintings ·0

Happy Memorial Day! Along with being the unofficial start of Summer, Memorial Day is of course a day to remember those we’ve loved and lost, particularly while serving our country. At 18 years old my Dad served in World War II and it forever changed his life. Whenever I see the grand display of American flags around this time of year I think of him and his service.

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 at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
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.
No, freedom isn’t free.