Edgar A. Tieman

THE UNKNOWN MIA

From 1972 to 1975, he had lay over there

Then on the caisson he is reverently placed
On a solemn day draped in the fierce colors
That cloaked him in the Red, White, and Blue
The air quite with patriotic incandescence

The single steps of the Marine honor guards
The cadence of a rider-less horse’s hooves
Stopped for a moment in front of the crypt of white
Of the Vietnam Unknown Soldier inscribed
1958-1975.

The temperate sound of a solo snare drum pierced
The stillness amid the hallowed ground there
Row upon row of weathered white headstones
Crisscross the open fields, dales, and slopes

Head stones with a background of green
Stood as lonely named portraits for each
The bravest of the brave our heroes of war
There he is placed.

The cry of the bugle and of the twenty-one gun salute
The flag folded tears of loved ones it will not feel
So many love ones do not know he is home

Among the old and new gravesites he had passed
To be laid among other brave souls who gave
Their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today

“I pray they will all come home.”