The Atty's Poem Collection (2012) ✓

(8) Ode: No Name

The Atty's Poem Collection (2012)
By Fox-Trot-9

(8) Ode: No Name

Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.
—Tomb of the Unknowns

The marble tombs hold silent vigil here,
   Accompanied with steps of twenty-one
Resounding through the air from year to year,
   Resounding for these soldiers yet unknown.

While others have returned without their limbs
   Or minds or lives intact, their names are left;
But for these honored dead whose only hymns
   Are scattered to the winds, they are bereft.

The living world will never know these dead
   Who sacrificed their lives, their souls, their names
For freedom's cause, their every substance bled,
   Their epitaphs long-buried in the flames.

Their loved ones, who have yet to see them home,
   Whose prayers are yet unanswered by their tears,
Lie in our hearts wherever they may roam,
   Sharing with us their grief, their hopes, their fears.

Their measures of devotion consecrate
   This sacred ground far more than rhyme of word;
Their courage, scattered to the winds of fate,
   Shall never pass or fade away unheard.

These souls, denied their human rights to fame,
   Now make the stars above their cherished home,
Advancing through the heavens like a flame
   That lights the countless diamonds 'neath the dome.

And so their names, unknown to us on earth,
   Are written in the candle of each star;
And as those stars gave ancient heroes birth,
   So shall our eyes pay tribute from afar.

(c) Len D.

(To be continued...)