A TIME FOR GIVING

(The Salute) 

Where are you my Father

for you have never returned home

 I stand here and salute you

so you won't feel so alone

The unknowing of your fate

your final resting place

so many years have passed

 forever, I shall remember your face  

An unmarked stone, in a distant land

 ground hollowed by a shovels blade

covered now by acts of nature

a protecting silence for  those who stayed

Give back to them a sign of love

a silent prayer, a grateful thought

Toss a flower into the wind

 live the freedom for which they fought

Their sacrifice's noted

new generations now bask

from opened history books

concerned children ask

The World, empty without them

vanished before their time

our heart's weighted with sorrow

 forever embedded in our mind's

 Never, never forget them

or the horrible price they paid

We shall always wonder

where their bodies are laid

©Chuck Preston 12~1~2002