More Poetry by Robert R. Woods

May 27, 2o13

MEMORIAL DAY

   It's been an eventful MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, but you'll need to go to my PAGES to read all about It. Here, you'll find my poem commemorating the occasion:

To The Dead

Memorial Day

Monday, May 27, 2013

 

Here’s a toast to the dead,

for the ones who never came back,
the ones who died in the blood and mud
of foreign lands, in the oceans  wide,
the jungles thick, the skies lit-up by tracer rounds.

 

Let’s raise our glasses for the lads and lasses

who made it back home without a scratch,
not a bloody wound  or festered sore to be seen.
Their scars do appear, but only in dreams.

 

And let us salute the absoluteness of war,

the life of death, domestic, abroad.
To the end of all bloodshed, a vow that we swore
so many, too many times before.

 

Let’s praise the corpse; hell, why not praise them all?               

Billy and Bobby, Sally and Sandy, Martin and Paul;
on withered legs escort them to their graves.

And when we’re through, jump start the good ol’ barbeque.
Yeah, let’s chug a few down for the glories of war.
“To the dead, the dead!”  We drink once more.
—rrw o5-26-13