About Me

I have lived in south Dakota, all of my life. My family is here, my roots are here. While I don't spend alot of time with "family", we always manage to bond together, when times get tough. Gunnar's death is more proof, of that.I also have a huge family of friends, and this "family"also pulls together, in a heart beat,when necessary. My parents live about 70 miles away, my husbands parents live about 7 miles from our house.

Saturday, September 03, 2011

"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE"


"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE"

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze
A young soldier 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 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

Thursday, September 01, 2011