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;
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!
©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong
As our nation observes Memorial Day, the members of the
House Republican Caucus join with Americans everywhere to pay tribute to our fallen
soldiers. Their service and sacrifices will never be forgotten.
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