Memorial Day 2016

US Casualties (Iraq War 2006), Dover Air Force Base Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Hail

Hail to thee, Warrior Dead!

Whose numbers are lost to time and propaganda.

Hail to those who fought for an ideal,

For a country,

            For a people,

                      For a price,

For survival.

Hail to those who had no other choice

But to fight—

Only to fall,

Only to die.

Hail to those who were removed from this world

By force of arms,

Who were at their peak

Of strength,

And health,

And potential.

Hail to the soldiers,

Hail to the sailors.

Hail to the airmen.

Hail to the marines.

Hail, you who died as heroes to your country.

Hail to the conquerers,

              And the conquered,

The remembered and forgotten, both.

Hail to those we memorialize

In story and song.

Hail to those we mythologize

In legend and campfire tales.

Hail to those who came before,

And those who will fall after—

In the centuries to come.

Perhaps, one day,

We'll have no need of war,

Or warriors,

Or the wanton destruction and death

That inevitably comes with the

Battles between nations,

But that dream is too far off to tell.

Until then,

Hail to thee, Warrior Dead!

You who sacrifice all

In the hopes that others would not have to.