Letter: Stunning

Posted 11/6/20

To the editor:

All countrymen should softly stroll these revered grounds

Tread carefully need not be uttered 

Senses instantly heightened as to duty of care

 

Rare …

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Letter: Stunning

Posted

To the editor:

All countrymen should softly stroll these revered grounds

Tread carefully need not be uttered 

Senses instantly heightened as to duty of care

 

Rare be the unimpressed of any race, color or creed 

Spilled tears influencing the greening grass   

Crooked shadows of aged trees outline the respected

 

Man’s eternal flame guarding the chosen few

An elevated and ornate area of but resting equals 

 

Smoothed marble stone growing in neat rows like paper whites 

Just beauty in this dignified simplicity

 

The noble guard dutifully changes like matchless clockwork

Wreaths be laid, yet every repeating day, nothing altered 

 

Brief inscriptions distinctly summarize all

Individualism forever lost in precise brotherly lines 

Line after line, brother after brother 

 

Known or unknown soldiers...no longer different

War stories told or untold...all the same 

 

Navigation impossible without legends 

Like the darkness of the ocean’s depth 

 

The pinnacle of organization be this place 

Here, resides the nadir of generational growth 

 

Strolling atop this hallowed earth, and never having served 

Goosebumps hosting new and strange guests 

Creeping closer, like an invasive species… be but guilt 

 

The southern general’s home now surrounded

Sitting on this sad and prominent crest...no accident it be

 

This ground does not move, but living souls will

The sheer numbers and solemnity thawing frozen hearts 

 

Oh, at this site, so so privileged to once walk with family

Because of them lying beneath, we unified as one

 

Duty, honor, country be much more than words 

Here, America’s best finally do rest 

 

My blessed father does not sleep here with brethren 

He, with his beloved at Bristol’s St. Mary’s 

Like so many true patriots ... ultimately finding home 

 

Dedicated to the memory of our veterans forever resting at Arlington

National Cemetery and everywhere throughout this bloodied land 

James M. Meehan

Barrington

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.