Ghost Soldiers

 Ghost Soldiers

A Memorial Day Salute

Last night I walked hand-to-hand

With some ghost soldiers from across this land

In witness of battles we can only see

Through their eyes and history.

We trod in quiet for quite a ways

While they thought, perhaps, about their living days

And maybe about some long lost love

Or parents and siblings they wondered of;

But when they spoke, to the one,

It was of a comrade and what they’d done:

A buddy, a sergeant, or some second lieutenant

Who could see the way with a victory in it!

They sucked it up, is what they said,

Knowing when they woke, they might be dead,

But then they charged the machine-gun nest

Or went over the top of salvation’s crest;

And what they did is what medals are for,

Heroics above and beyond the call of war,

Where none, they said, was left behind

Though after that their memories were blind.

They laid no blame, then or now,

Nor cursed their lot or solemn vow

To defend their country against any threat

And never once invoked the country’s dept!

We walked worn paths past historic points,

Those places where sacrifice clearly anoints

The legions of heroes noted on the scrolls of war,

Bespoke of their belief in what they bled for;

And onward we journeyed, hand-to-hand,

Until the first rays of dawn touched our land,

When to his post, each ghost soldier slipped back

To make ready again for any imminent attack.

 

The last to leave brought their colors down,

Close, but not once touching the ground,

Gave a smart salute and about-face-right,

Before marching off into the night

 

Leaving me alone to awake in my bed

With seeming miles afoot and notions ahead

To present this salute to that ghostly platoon

For sacrifice, valor, and lives taken too soon!

by

James N. (Jim) Zitzelsberger

© 2020