A Soldier's Grave In Normandy
I will board a plane
and visit the grave
of that brave soldier
who left his country
to defend the principles of liberty
banned by a heartless dictator
who praised a pure race.
In ocean-washed Normandy
the fierce battle went on for days,
American and British
invaded the desolate beach,
here the Normans
called their home eventually,
and leaving Sweden
and the glaciers behind them in March,
their bellicose plans
were temporarily put on hold...
until they found free land
in a milder place called
Southern Italy.
I found the grave
of my buddy Albert
and my weeping might
wake him from his long sleep;
it's November and clouds seem like sheep
going to their pasture before winter sets in
with vengefulness, that'll make all graves shake...
no, it's not Resurrection Day, only an admonition.
No snow has fallen yet on the granite graves,
all the names of the fallen soldiers
can be read clearly, but doomed to silence
they aren't spoken and proclaimed heroes;
here, sorrow prevails with its essence...
is this a monument built to the bravery
of thousands, forgotten by memory,
but not by the ones who were saved
by the bravest warriors who ever lived?
Flowers left on this grave
will whiter and dispersed
by the frigid wind will have
the same fate of the leaves
floating and coming down to rest
on frosted meadows not yet
buried in glistening whiteness
and in a solitude bitterly awaited.
Who has never pondered death
in this sombrous and sorrowful place
separated by human remoteness,
has never reflected on his own; Albert's death
was a sacrifice for freedom to give others a chance
at being free when terror reigned through Europe...
only defeated by the courageous valor of soldiers
who is remembered by me in this poem of perennial hope!
Copyright © Andrew Crisci | Year Posted 2021
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