The Tomb of the Well Known Soldier

Dedicated to the Men and Women who have died to protect everything we hold dear.

The trooper lays his gun away

to sleep; he fights on break of day.

Alas, he’s struck behind the lines

and topples on a field of mines.

A chaplain forces out the news;

states that this soul, God won’t refuse.

The family counts their loathsome loss;

depression spreads its dreary moss.

As friends and neighbors gather round,

the shovel cuts the cold hard ground.

Some trite religious words are said

before the earth consumes the dead.

Above him, his beloved cry;

divine theft seems unjustified.

The soil is the final lock;

it hits the casket with a knock.

His mother’s last that’s left to mourn

upon the dirt that fate has torn.

Though not engraved upon his tomb,

his epitaph reads “gone so soon.”