Lest We Forget to Remember

How can we remember?

That long time ago

decades before our birth

We only see the grainy, greyed images

of soldiers marching, fighting, dying

and walking skeletons

of POW's and the Final Solution

A mushroom cloud

shocking the world into uneasy peace

But it has not ended

Ongoing battles erupt on our streets

Violence confronts us

 CNN live minute by minute

So we mute the sound

detach from the images

tune out the pain

And the old ones get fewer as the years race

so heart breakingly young

In the heat of fighting growing suddenly old

Now gathered, berets jaunty

medals bright

necks frail as baby birds

Eyes and minds far away

tears traveling the wrinkled paths

of memories and faces

That is how we will remember

listening with our hearts

Finally understanding the meaning

of their sacrifice.