BEVERLEY HAIRE

THE SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
Dedicated to the memory of T/Sgt. Richard M. Cole Jr. MIA June 18, 1972

I am a whisper on the wind, of times past, of places long forgotten...
Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, Normandy,
A Shau, Saigon, Laos, Cambodia, Kuwait, Bosnia.
I am the heart of countless numbers of scarred and maimed veterans,
and the soul of the buried unknown.

I am an integral part of each white cross in Flanders Field...
and am sealed within each name on THE WALL. I am part of each
and every headstone, either real or imagined,
of every American soldier in every burial place in the world.

I am deeply enmeshed in each tiny undiscovered bone fragment
of American soldiers... left behind on foreign soil.
I am the unseen shadows, the unheard voices in those many empty cells,
cages, compounds and camps, that once held my brothers
in unspeakable torture.

I am the unbearable pain in the hearts of every mother, father, wife,
sister, brother and child...
of missing American soldiers from all wars.
I am within each drop of blood the soldiers shed,
and I am within each of the millions of tears shed in their behalf.

I am the essence of each cry of pain, each bead of sweat,
each moment of death... of each and every American soldier
of the past or future.
I am the lifeblood of the colors of the American flag,
blue for my loyalty, white for my steadfastness, red for my pride.

I am the spirit of those many names on the black granite wall...
of those unaccounted for from all wars,
of those who went away to war as gallant young men and women,
and came back, older than time... OR NOT AT ALL.
I AM... THE SPIRIT OF THE AMERICAN SOLDIER!

©Copyright 1998 by Beverley Haire