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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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