WHY A MEMORIAL DAY
Poetry by Patrick N. Kramer

A Spiritual And Inspirational Poem from All-Creatures.org

Have you ever taken the time to wonder about our honored dead?
Do you ever wonder if they were remembered only by those they wed?
Many were very young and far from home when they did die.
Leaving behind only their parents to mourn them and to cry!
Yet some were old enough to have married, leaving behind a wife.
And it was she who felt the loss and mourned her man at the end of his life.

Have you ever taken the time to look back upon the deaths of history?
Is the reason why so many for our country have died, to you a mystery?
Do you understand the beliefs of those who fought for freedom’s ways?
Would you have given up your life for freedom like they did in those days?
Since the earliest days of our country, many a service man has died.
Since it all began, hundreds of thousands of widows and families have cried.

Our men died sometimes in small numbers, like those who died on the Barbary Coast.
Funerals were held for those lost at sea with only memories of their faces at the most.
Many of our men were killed at sea.
Their bodies lost to the waves for eternity.
The memories of their faces is all that is left to the families of the dead.
That and the terrible memory of the day that all military families dread!

A terrible day that has come to many families throughout the years!
A day that has come many times filled with sorrow’s most, saddest tears.
A day upon which sorrow’s most, saddest screams of pain could be heard!
They are the saddest screams to hear, for the messenger has yet to speak a word.
He may not have spoken of what the families dread, yet they know what he came to say.
The most painful words any family ever wants to hear, your serviceman has passed away.

And so it has been throughout the years in far away places our men have died.
In such places as China, Russia, Korea and Japan, Americans did die.
In many places throughout the world American bravery was shown.
In many small places our men have died and few have ever known.
They died in small attacks and in full scale battles of a World War.
They died with pride and honor, becoming a memory of a man seen no more.

Their flag covered caskets are all that is returned of them, to the ones they love.
Forever closed are their caskets, leaving memories and prayers they are with God above.
Memories are all the families will now ever have of their service men as days go by.
Memories of the worries, and that heart breaking painful day that made them cry!
It is for our honored dead and all who have suffer their loss, we celebrate Memorial Day.
We celebrate their memory, and the price of freedom is also remembered upon this day.