Trail of Honor; Jackson, MS Harley Davidson

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE

 

I watched the flag pass by one day,

It fluttered in the breeze;

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

 

I looked at him in uniform,

So young, so tall, so proud;

With hair cut square and eyes alert,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

 

I thought... how many men like him

Had fallen through the years?

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

 

How many pilots' planes shot down

How many died at sea

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves

No, Freedom is not Free.

 

I heard the sound of Taps one night,

When everything was still;

I listened to the bugler play,

And felt a sudden chill;

 

I wondered just how many times

That Taps had meant "Amen"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend;

 

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands.

With interrupted lives.

 

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea,

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No. Freedom is not Free!

 

©Copyright 1981 by Kelly Strong

 

 

Biographical Information

 

Commander

Unites States Coast Guard

 

This poem is important to Kelly because he wrote it as a high school senior (JROTC cadet) at Homestead High, Homestead, FL. in 1981. It is a tribute to his father, a career marine who served two tours in Vietnam

 

Done