Lest We Forget
Forget, how could anyone forget fighting their way out of Hell?
Forget the shoulders of the fallen upon which we stand?
Forget those whose memory we swore we'd never let die?
Forget their legacy that we swore to uphold?
Why is it so easy for everyone else to move on?
Because they didn't see what we saw.
Hear what we heard.
Smelt what we smelt.
Felt what we felt.
I can't blame them for forgetting, they have nothing to remember.
Veterans Day, what a joke.
All the halfheartedly uttered "thank you for your service."
What do they know about our service?
The only thing that makes people remember is a hat or a poppy pinned to a lapel.
Even then, how many youths don't even care about those.
Some of my own great grandchildren had no idea what the poppy meant until I told them.
Veterans Day, it's just a day off of work to most.
Except to those kids in their fatigues that I overheard in the Applebee's today drunk and talking loudly about being deployed to Africa.
Why do they have to go?
Our generation was supposed to have been the ones to protect future generations from the same fate.
Do they march to the same cadences we did?
Do they eat the same crappy food?
Do they still get drenched doing PT in the rain?
Do they still joke about things that no one else would understand?
How many more generations of innocence must be shattered?
How many more generations will have to aim a gun at another human being?
How many more generations must endure Hell?
How many more generations must die?
Lest we forget.
We have already forgotten.
We must have.
There's no other explanation.
I hate how easily we have forgotten.
Why have we forgotten?
Because we are too afraid to speak up and share our nightmares.
Because people close their ears and hearts because it's hard to hear about.
Because people are doomed to repeat the same vicious cycles until the end of time.
So, let's not kid ourselves, not today.
Today it's too painful.
Lest they forget.
They've forgotten.
But we will always remember, Happy Veteran's Day Colonel.
Carter placed the poppies atop the plot of ground where his commanding officer's mortal remains lie and hobbled off leaning heavily on his cane on a path he knew well to where his grandson who had been killed in Desert Storm was buried.
Author's Note:
Thank you to all who have served and all those who are currently serving.
My sister is currently deployed in Kenya, so I needed to write some kind of tribute to those who've fought and those who've died in service to our country and this is the result.
May we never forget!