A Poem I wrote for Vets

Liberty Bell Tolls

(Published in the AMVETS newspaper and read at the Memo- rial Day parade 1997)

Give them liberty, 

For my death,

Consider it a soldier’s

Last request,

Let them live in freedom, 

And do not contest,

For I paid for it,

With my last breath. 

Where missiles soar, And napalm burns, 

In all our wars,

Burnt and bloodied turns, 

In what is lost in death, 

Let the living learn,

That their freedom’s price,

Lies not undiscerned,

In Stars and Stripes,

Let my empty body rest,

And the flood of tears,

Swell in the mourner’s breast.

But give them liberty,

For my death,

I have paid for it, 

With my last breath.