LEST WE FORGET - JULY 27, 1953

1.
Four specters rose from morning’s mist
Each held a weapon in his fist.
Four soldiers, tattered khaki clad,
Four who’d given all they had.
2.
Four times a year they gathered round
The Unknowns’ Tomb, their hallowed ground,
This sacred squad from Kingdom Come,
To celebrate what they had done.
3.
They marched forth from the womb of dawn,
From separate generations born.
Each brave and bold, once bound for war,............THE NY JOURNAL-AMERICAN
Now young and dead for evermore.................................July.27, 1953
4............................................................................Burris Jenkins, Jr.
The first, his taste of combat brief,
Had lain awash on D-Day beach......... .
He thought of home and she who’d grieve....................
Then closed his eyes and took his leave.
5.
The second one, on Pork Chop hill,
Took three foes with him as he fell.
The trench his tomb, the sky his shroud,
His final prayer, “I hope dad’s proud.”
6.
The third, in Mekong, met his fate,
Flew home in flag-draped wooden crate.
His widow’s tears could not deflect
The peaceniks’ foul-mouthed disrespect.
7.
The fourth had newly joined the squad,
(A roadside bomb inside Baghdad)
Before he died he prayed that he
Might kiss the son he’d never see.
8.
But this was now two thousand nine.
The land they died for in decline.
No more the greatest place on earth.
Their sacrifice had lost its worth
9.
Their countrymen had gone astray,
Had tossed their heritage away.
Forgotten Pearl and Peleliu.
Forgotten 9/11 too.
10.
Forgot Inchon and Heartbreak Ridge.
Forgot Da Nang and Quang Tri Bridge.
These four who fought and bled and died
Just turned their heads away and cried.
11.
Each tried his hardest to disguise
(He couldn’t to his comrades show)
The tears that welled within his eyes;
From pain that only warriors know.
12.
“Not pain from death - Death’s part of war,”
They’d tell you if you couldn’t guess.
“But pain that comes from hist’ry’s whore,
That strumpet called forgetfulness.