for Memorial Day
Yes, those who died
serving their country.
But maybe, too, those
who fought valiantly
for their own lives,
on their own lines
of fire. On fields
of grave illnesses,
fierce divorces,
falling fortunes.
Who entered their fray,
brave or scared.
Who suffered,
sometimes greatly.
Were wounded,
sometimes fatally.
Survived but scarred
deeply, emotionally.
People known to us,
and unknown. All worthy,
not solely of our remembering
but also of our silent
and spoken honoring.
For the courage
they summoned
in the face of the fearful;
the belief in self
and the power of possibility
they called on, or
discovered. These unsung
we can choose to remember,
can raise a thought, a glass,
a large, feeling flag
of heart to,
this day.
Colin Goedecke
On Memorial Day
Short Hills, New Jersey
May 27, 2019