Freedom Isn't Free

I watched the flag pass one day,

It fluttered in the breeze...

A young soldier saluted it, & then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,

So young, so tall, so proud...

With hair cut square & 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 Mother's tears?

How many pilots' plane shot down?

How many foxholes were soldiers graves?

NO FREEDOM ISN'T 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 friend.

I thought of all the children,

of Mothers and the wives,

of Fathers, sons,& husbands

with interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard at the

Bottom of the sea,

of unmarked graves in Arlington...

NO FREEDOM ISN'T FREE

Author Unknown