In Honor

In Honor


The building wall rose at a right angle
Parallel to the sidewalk where I walked,
On each brick a name embossed,
A name of each one who served
Through World War Two.
I always stopped and let my eyes
Search the bricks for a special epithet,
A unique brick that to my child’s mind
Glowed with extra valor and might.
“Raymond Gilbert - USAF,” it read,
For the father I still adored.

How many died, how many bled
So that we could be free?

A jet flies overhead toward
The Air Force base not many miles away.
I always stop and watch, imagining
The pilot, wondering if he’s alone
Or if he has someone to guide him,
Sitting in the seat directly behind.
Somewhere a plane plays hide-and-seek
Hopefully only with some clouds,
Where my son plots courses and rendevous
Away from his wife and home,
All to keep us from enemy harm.

How many die, how many bleed
So others can be free?

What owe we to men and women
From past to the present,
Who gave and give up even life itself
To take up arms and stand a barricade
Between us and loss of liberty?
How can we e’er repay the debt
To those who gave their all?
We owe more than we can give,
But the only thing they ever asked
Was we simply say, “Thank you.”



Dedicated to Major Robert Lee Zabel, Jr. May 26, 2003.

winner of Writers' Cramp May 26, 2003