Memorial Day

(Gallery Featured Below)

Section 60

Ghostly white elegant marble edifices

trimmed

precisely-shaped edges

stand vigil -

honored dead in hushed repose

exist in dignified equidistance

from fellow fallen.

Shade from aged oak and cherry trees

enshrouds those muted witnesses

of violent histories and broken dreams,

lone

stray leaves dotting this,

a most hallowed ground.

Somewhere, camouflaged within rustling of trees,

forlorn

singular notes of all too-familiar

“Taps” are played -

the haunting sounds drift

over tear-stained grass,

welcoming a new arrival.

All rest with a silent,

tender peace,

divorced from the violent author of their passing here -

in Section 60.

Fathers, sons, brothers, sisters and mothers

claimed by eternal

quiet

are but still witnesses to unfathomable horror.

And in a clear space,

the accomplished soldier

is accompanied by that young woman -

loving still, lying prone,

overwhelmed

with that special type of unspeakable,

all-consuming, soul-shattering grief.

Remember them.

~ Bill Breneman ~