I will remember

I will remember
I heard that he had been killed
in Afghanistan
oh, I will remember the day I heard
it was a bright summer day
azure blue
and my heart swelled like an ocean of tears,
and I wept on a beautiful day
clear as sparkling wine
and my sorrow was a chain of lead
as I visited his grave
and was lost in a sea of white military headstones
in rows and rows and rows
baking under the fierce summer sun
and hidden birds sang from drooping branches
and flowers hung their heads
yet butterflies drifted
and squirrels scampered
and clouds sailed across the blue
but the air was saturated with quiet sadness
and my heart was a blanket of darkness
oh, some people assume that peacekeepers
do not die but they are wrong
for the graves do not lie
and the drums of time will roll and roll and roll
and I will keep him in my heart evermore
where the sweetness of a childhood friend lives
like an endless day of play...

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July 10, 2021

Poetry/Free Verse/I will remember
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