Silent Graves

Karl Fritz flag folding at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo by Leanna Elise Long, 2007
Karl Fritz flag folding at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo by Leanna Elise Long, 2007

We are continually amazed by the youth of Chapel Hill.  This poem was written last year for Memorial Day by then Chapel Hill High School Junior Leanna Elise Long.  It was read by her at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Chapel Hill Saturday Sunrise Memorial Day Service.

That service will be held again this year on Saturday, May 28th, at 8 a.m., at Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery on Legion Road.

Silent Graves

by:  Leanna Elise Long

We honour our fallen
by speaking their names.
Slowly.
Whispered prayers.
Eyes down cast.

The war raised,
when they were young
the fight for freedom
still needed to be won.

Young people!
Enlist!
For your love of Country!
Home a hero!

Those who gave all,
mind, soul and life
lay here,
six feet down,
far from their battlegrounds.

Memories fail,
the guilt of friends;
they are here,
to remind you,
that love never ends.

For 364 days
these graves are silent.
The least we can do,
for one day—
their day—
speak their names
and sacrifice.
For those yet born.
Acclaim your thanks,
announce their pride,
mourn their lost stories
of could-have-been’s passed by.

Lives for Freedom.
That is the trade.
Thank God for them
for the price they payed.

Leanna Elise Long is a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, Post No. 6, Chapel Hill.

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