Decorate the Graves

Perhaps they volunteered, perhaps they were conscripted/ Perhaps they kept a shop, perhaps they tilled the soil/ Perhaps they left the States to shouts of "baby killer", perhaps they heard "no blood for oil"/ Perhaps they knew or feared that they would not return alive, perhaps they felt indestructible, filled with confidence, certain but sadly mistaken that they would survive/ Perhaps they left with timid heart afraid of what they'd face/ Perhaps, they knew our greatness as an exceptional place/ Perhaps they never wanted war/ Perhaps they knew America was worth dying for/ Perhaps they had loved this land since Mayflower time, perhaps they were fresh off the boat without a dime/ For the city on the hill in this land that still beckons even today/ It was their duty or privilege- their lives to pay/ For liberty is always purchased with blood spilled/ As tyrants and madmen refuse to yield/ Were they here long enough to say "a life well-lived"?/ Indeed they were, for freedom's sake/ The struggle to which every patriot must remain awake/ None went willingly to their young grave/ But it is the United States of America that their sacrifice continues to save.   God bless them and rest their souls