Silent Graves

Our National cemeteries are without flags on graves this year.  Our local cemetery will be quieter this Memorial Day, too.  An annual tradition was silenced by a virus–Covid-19. 

Our Post is also closed and, therefore, we will not hold an open house this year and we will not decorate area veteran graves.  Our hearts are full of memories of those who have passed before us.  As a memorial tribute to them, we share a poem written for Memorial Day 2015.

Silent Graves

by:  Leanna Elise Long

We honour our fallen
by speaking their names.
Slowly.
Whispered prayers.
Eyes down cast.

The war raised,
when they were young
the fight for freedom
still needed to be won.

Young people!
Enlist!
For your love of Country!
Home a hero!

Those who gave all,
mind, soul, and life
lay here,
six feet down,
far from their battlegrounds.

Memories fail,
the guilt of friends;
they are here,
to remind you,
that love never ends.

For 364 days
these graves are silent.
The least we can do,
for one day—
their day—
speak their names
and sacrifice.
For those yet born.
Acclaim your thanks,
announce their pride,
mourn their lost stories
of could-have-been’s passed by.

Lives for Freedom.
That is the trade.
Thank God for them
for the price they payed.

Leanna Elise Long is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, Post No. 6, Chapel Hill.