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Those Left Standing

	
        Memorial Day  2000
	Dedicated
	to
	Those Left Standing
	Written: by Tom Wright
	5/8/00
	
	Monuments,
	Fashioned of assorted granite stone,
	Neatly standing,
	As if in manicured rows;
	A memorial,
	To friends and loved one's gone,
	Their numbers uncontrollable,
	For each year it always grows.
	
	Oft times from deep in solitude,
	In sadness, I'm reminded,
	And at mere sight
	Of one small flag;
	I swell with pride
	And oft by tears am blinded.
	Desperately trying in my spirit,
	Not to brag.
	
	I, in deepest thought,
	On this 2000 Memorial Day,
	Am silently taken back
	To the place of Flanders Field,
	Where neat white crosses
	Stand by the way,
	As if cloned, among red poppies,
	It's only living yield.
	
	I see a Moving Wall
	Meticulously chiseled in granite black;
	Bearing Viet Nam casualties,
	Each, remembered by name;
	I think of those yet living,
	And about their lack;
	As for their treatment,
	We all must share some blame.
	
	Those, perhaps,
	Once forced to fight a war.
	Said by many,
	To have been unjust;.
	But duty bound to country,
	In that land afar,
	In God's hands,
	Put their lives and trust.
	
	To those of Desert Storm
	Having experienced combat days,
	I shall endeavor to remember
	Those who fell,
	And those,
	Yet baring scars of war in another way;
	Those haunted by tormented faces,
	Scud Missiles and deaths smell.
	
	Hero's who served,
	And gallantly died;
	To those I cannot express,
	The trappings of my heart;
	To those who served,
	And returned with pride
	Let thanks, gratitude and prayers,
	Be my humble start.

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