Of Gifts Bestowed

For those we lost at sea/ Throw flowers on the waves/ For all the rest/ Go and decorate their graves/ No one draws breath today who knew a man who knew a man at Valley Forge or Trenton or Yorktown/ Yet the gift of liberty they bought with frostbite, blood, and suffering remains/ "'Tis a day to celebrate", they would say/ As life is ever fleeting/ Especially so when a tyrant needs defeating/ But George and England soon forgot the lesson and tried to steal the blessing/ But Kentucky rifles prevailed/ And it was redcoat hide that was nailed/ As freedom survived the assault of 1812/Then manifest destiny took flight/ And civilized the savage night/ Took what to Mexico never belonged/ Singing America's full-throated powerful song/ And then brother bled brother white/ As America entered her darkest night/ Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg ran red with gore/ As North and South fought to even the score/ Men burned alive in the Wilderness Campaign/ But at least the stain of slavery was erased for national gain/ And this holy day began/ With widows and orphans on sacred ground/ Scattering garlands around the fallen heroes earthly beds/ And sending invocations skyward/ A brief time passed, and peace elapsed as the USS Maine exploded/ To arms was the call to one and to all/ And the empire of Spain imploded/ Under US might, the darkening night of Spanish oppression folded/ And tyrants the world over knew America was not to be scolded/ But brave men in blue/ Fell there too/ In the prime of life/ They answered drum and fife/ On San Juan Hill/ Despite polo skill/ Died a star clutching his Krag/ As from a firing port, at Spain's last resort, a Mauser found its mark/ It's impact stark/ But only gallons were spilled/ The worst was yet still-/ A continent erupted/ The Kaiser and the Hun/ Had the world on the run/ As Wilson patiently waited/ And a peace-loving America debated/ Was this our war?/ To settle the score of Mexican intrigue with Germans/ And the Lusitania brought down/ Killing the population of a town/ And US in righteous wrath and indignation/ Issued the call once again to one and to all/ To take up the sword of freedom/ And a boy from verdant fields of green/ Saw something he had never seen/ A landscape brown and barren/ With the clinging stench of death/ As he draws his last breath in his trench choked on phosgene and mustard/ But most made it back/ With the nation's honor intact/ And leathernecks and devil dogs forever heralded with the lost battalion/ With freedom preserved and our values served/ And the Kaiser sent packing/ America went back in her shell/ With isolationists telling the rest of the world to go to hell/ And a menace slowly rising/ Germany came back and mounted an attack/ That should not have been surprising/ Now rivers of blood and a continent of mud and fire/ Thwarted the desire for peace/ Amongst all but the most insular beast/ And then bombs and torpedoes ravaged Pearl Harbor/ The dye was cast/ In the treacherous blast/ And Americans laid down their lives for their friends by the thousands/ But they kept promises made/ And paid ultimate debts to be paid/ To redeem a world's liberation/ Then Korea came/ And war was the game/ With Vietnam the same for our peace and liberty loving nation/ A few spats here and there handled mostly with good cheer/ But blood spills again in Grenada-then Panama-the war most of us saw in the Gulf in 1991 with us spoiling Saddam's conquest fun/ But the terrible cost to the National Guard of Pennsylvania/ With one lucky Scud-Why couldn't it have been a dud?/ Stealing the souls of the descendants of the ever valiant in the Keystone state/ Who in answering the call to battle/ Have never been late/ Oh, down, down came the towers, in blood and flame/ The Jihadists' game/ And up for freedom sprouted/ Those who shouted "You will never soil America's name/ They rose in the ranks to avenge the shame/ Cast the blame on all those who doubted/ We still lay down our lives for liberty/ For those who are lost/ We mourn them/ For those who shirk the cost/ We scorn them/ Each and every one that fell/ Had much life left yet to tell/ Laid down willingly to keep us free/ As God means us to be/ So hold fast for liberty/ Do not permit any enemy to take freedom away/ We few patriots must save the day/ From tyrants, foreign and domestic-/ Celebrate the sacrifice they made-lives given not lost, and remember them on this and every Memorial Day. Be relentless in defense of liberty.