Military Funeral

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Study War No More
Peace Poems and Service Songs by H. Paul Shuch

Military Funeral
copyright © 1999

As shadows lengthen
And comrades fall
I think back to the flag
We blindly served.
For I was not proud
To serve my country
But rather ashamed
At my own gullibility.
I somehow survived
And thus was spared
The embarrasment of
A military funeral.

But shadows lengthen
And comrades fall
And I gaze at the flags
Which drape their coffins
And marvel at still being here.
The trick was not to survive,
But to transcend.
So instead of a veteran
Who became a techer,
I was the teacher
Who happened to be
A veteran.

But my shadows lengthen.
I too will fall,
In a year, or a decade,
Or more, maybe less,
And it's time to consider
How I'll be remembered:
For service, or taking
The easy way out?
And the easy way out
Is a military cremation.
Formal, complete
With a twenty-one match salute.

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