Fort Snelling Military Cemetery-Memorial Day, 2015

The Crosses
I stood there before the crosses 
glowing white in row on row
Everyone a young life cut short
as the names upon them show.

***********************************

“Voices of boys were by the river-side.

Sleep mothered them; and left the twilight sad.” 

― Wilfred Owen, The War Poems

An Irish Airman foresees His Death

I KNOW that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;         —Wm Butler Yeats High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . . Up, up the long, delirious burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. — John Gillespie Magee,