Memorial Day

The finest tribute we can

Unto our hero dead to-day,

Is not a rose wreath, white and red,

In memory of the blood they shed;

It is to stand beside each mound,

Each couch of consecrated ground,

And pledge ourselves as warriors

Unto the work they died to do.

Into God's valleys where they

At rest, beneath the open sky,

Triumphant now o'er every foe,

As living tributes let us go.

No wreath of rose or

Or spoken word or tolling

Will do to-day, unless we

Our pledge that liberty shall live.

Our hearts must be the roses

We place above our hero dead;

To-day beside their graves we

Renew allegiance to their trust;

Must bare our heads and humbly

We hold the Flag as dear as they,

And stand, as once they stood, to

To keep the Stars and Stripes on high.

The finest tribute we can

Unto our hero dead

Is not of speech or roses red,

But living, throbbing hearts instead,

That shall renew the pledge they

With death upon the battlefield:

That freedom's flag shall bear no

And free men wear no tyrant's chain.

Taken from Just Folks by Edgar A

Published by The Reilly & Lee Co.,

Chicago,

Pages 47-48