Echoes From Off Samar
By Evan Hollis Crawforth
"Remember me" from the distant past the faint, haunting voices
still echo from off Samar.
"Remember me" they echo again and again.
But they say nothing of the fear and agony
and boredom and loneliness and anxiety and nightmare.
Or of the bomb blasts, the whining bullets and screaming shells.
But all is now calm with them as on the first day of Eden.
Well why not? They earned their rest.
On angry seas and in hostile skies, they waited and watched
and dodged and swerved and attacked
and retreated praying, "not me, not me"
when the Almighty reached out to touch them.
They knew it all, the terrifying noise and the equally terrifying silence,
the roaring flames, the fitful cries of the wounded,
the anguish at the first sight of death.
Who would disturb them now with memories of war?
And yet, if they could speak, surely each would say,
"Do not let my sacrifice be forgotten.
If you cannot remember the loves that never came,
the children who never were, the dreams unfulfilled,
or the life unlived, at least remember my name."
"This one small thing, I ask of you!!"
Copyright©1994 Evan Hollis Crawforth All rights reserved
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