Paying My Respects - Memorial Day Poems

Pain struck looks on loved one's faces,
as they pay their respects and graces.
To the graves of those who lost,
their lifes but not their memory, at what a cost.

They paid their country back in full,
when upon them Death took it's toll.
The brave and weary, young and old,
they watched as so many lifes endings came to unfold.

May fifth in eighteen sixty-six,
is when 'Memorial Day' finally sticks.
"Decoration Day and Memorial intertwine,
bravery honored in their design.

And yet still I hear the tales of the dead,
in the stories from books written and read.
I hear the cries of families in their grief,
of lifes' journeys' that were much too brief.

Feel the pain that eminates like a cloud,
drapes over their shoulders in a somber shroud.
And in memory I remember when,
soldiers were lost and then again.

Thank them for their sacrifices,
those who fought wars' hatred and freedomless vices.
And I wonder at those soldiers all,
who heeded their country's call.

My eyes with shadows are cast over where the courageous lay,
and all I can think to do or say..
Is to look up and to the heavens pray,
"Thank God for Memorial Day!"