Wall of Names

Dark and full of purpose
Black and winding through the grass
Approach is solemn and somber

Echoes of gunfire and blood
and Song
Ricochet along the naming wall

More people than I have ever know
More hands than I could shake
On and on the names keep coming

How could we do this?
How could we drag them from their homes?
To do this to them?
Our own sons and neighbor boys.

My dad tried to enlist a few years before I was born.
Genetics sabotaged his efforts
He three weeks later came home in uniform

He went back to work and let others
Find their Glory.
Because of that twist of fate,
I can tell this story.

As the war raged
He met my mom
As the war ended
I was born,

30 years later I took my kids to see the wall
With Grandpa’s name not on it.

My father was not a sacrifice,
Neither will be my son.
Governmental blood can find someone else.

Human sacrifice is DONE.