Month: May 2026

Memorial Day Remembrance

The morning sun rose in cool softness over the gentle Missouri hills,

a morning announced with the calling of the geese as they fly over. 

A special gathering is beginning deep within the hills,

speckled with white uniform tombstones.

Tombstones all a certain size, all to match the other,

rowed to follow the curves, the sloping grass.

Gentle hushed people walking, stopping to look,

stopping to look for; hoping to see.

See the familiar name, the identity of the one,

the lone one they once knew and shared life.

Flag markers are diligently pierced in the grass, the grass that carpets each gravesite.

Cutting through the cemetery a road lined from one end

leans with motorcycles representing a special war.

Significant of the era it was fought in; tumultuous times,

the confusion so related to the war of Southeast Asia.

Elderly men reminiscent of the World Wars and foreign fields

while the innocent children play around Oak trees.

The children that have been allowed,

because yesterday existed and the brave stood tall.

Twenty-one guns… start to sound, one after another,

silent crowds stand in reverence, while children cry.

Taps of the lone soldier, a soldier remembered,

remembered by his friend in the civil war.

Haunting ricochets sound its memory for all that stood watch,

all that stood and listened.

Off in the distance,

the silence heard of tears that don’t cry out.

The tears of broken families, holding memories of their loved ones.

Morning wandered; again, the geese call us back to the beginnings.

The lone jogger wipes the tears; of a Father she never knew.

Copyrighted: CMM 2002

Photo Copyrighted: CMM 2002 See

Rushing tides swell to sounds comforting

restless misunderstandings of life.

The splash of the salty waters cap

in white pillows of foam hitting against

rocks and left over sands from the tides.

No chatter, no explanation, just declarations

of existence as the visitor sits, and waits,

waits for the wisdom that is not ready

to disclose

until the tenderness of the soul

has come…

2026. CMM.