The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.
~Archibald MacLeish
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This poem was read at the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund event last Thursday. On Wednesday several hundred volunteers spent hours placing 20,000 flags on a gentle slope on Boston Common adjacent to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Each flag represents a serviceman or -woman from Massachusetts who died in the defense of our country from World War I onward, except for the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Boston Common, May 28 2011
143 Massachusetts residents have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. Their flags were placed in the ceremony that took place on Thursday.
An individuals name and rank was read out loud, then a flag a placed in the ground.
Another individuals name and rank followed. Then another, and another, and another, until all 143 names were read out loud.
Some of the name readers were the parents, siblings or friends of the deceased
“Staff Sergeant so-and-so, my son…”
“My brother, my hero, 1st Lieutenant so-and-so…”
“My son, Private First Class so-and-so…”
As heart-breaking as it was to hear those words spoken out loud, nothing compared to the words of Alma Hart. Ms Harts son was the first Massachusetts soldier to be killed in action in Iraq.
She spoke of catching her husband pausing and lingering over family portraits and of doing the same herself.
“Each day I walk past photos of him and want to say hi. But I can’t. Because he’s dead.”
Enjoy Memorial Day but please, remember that today has a much deeper meaning for some people, and we owe them our deepest respect and gratitude.
