Veterans Day

We come to Veterans Day a nation divided. Blue and Red. Left and right. But, hopefully we can agree when it comes to honoring and respecting our veterans. I posted this poem several years ago. I wrote it after attending a local event honoring wounded veterans. It was a moving and emotional event which I will never forget.

Purple Hearts and Roses

They gathered at the Methodist Church.
To honor and read those names.
It is the Heart that brings them together
The Heart, it is all that remains.
.
They wear their wars on their faces.
Every battle, some won and some lost.
These people know the truth about fighting,
For they have paid the costs.

The greatest generation sits up front.
Old men, some waiting to die.
Fears once felt again remembered,
Yet courage still fills their eyes.

They read the names of the departed.
And place a rose for the fallen Heart.
Each drop of blood is sacred
Each rose sets them apart.

They play “Taps” at the Methodist Church.
A salute to the dead and the dying.
Purple Hearts stand together in silence
With roses these Hearts are crying.