Memorial Day: A Poem

Unanticipated clouds advance, shifting the weight

of the world — or at least the measured objectives of

so many compulsory affairs — nonplussed after all

this time by their capacity to inspire, interrupt, or else

frustrate the better angels of Nature’s encumbrance.

Fathers linger absentmindedly at inexhaustible grills.

Mothers indulge in a quick cry behind bathroom doors

(more from habit than necessity). Bored children fish

in depleted ponds, muscle memory improvising

rituals handed down unthinkingly, like faiths or families.

Soldiers, acknowledged at last in their fortified shrines,

die afresh each time a bouquet drops like a shell

atop consecrated soil, foretold fates secured again,

courtesy of grim yet unconflicted officials, whose

solemn directives ensure that history echoes itself.

Memorial Day: A Poem was originally published in Extra Newsfeed on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.