Veterans Day

Balance of time slights the recurring vigil Country's pride gleans the depleting residual Annual tears water the artifices above manicured ground Unextinguished pyre of tinseled youth still seethes 'neath clodded mound The drum roll of spent days serenade each, muted mime As ceremonial taps grant ingratiated minds trite stime Into heroic feats rendered in soldiers' splintered prime Human shadows hover in the solace of peace sublime Sodden warriors' token sacrifice remains layered in lime Sentient wreaths shroud shallower graves Each, calcified bone now jading memory's slave Stoic crosses reincarnate the souls of the fallen brave Devoted progeny patriotic reserves from depleted fibers shave