ARMISTICE

Armistice. Latin. armistitution, a short truce.

This Kansas plain has been blessed

by the blood of those who left.

Some brought home in boxes. Others never.

Island Mound, San Juan Hill, Chateau Thierry,

Normandy, Coral Sea, Heartbreak Ridge,

Saigon, Baghdad , , , Kabul , , , Kandahar . . .

So many places. So many heroes.

We honor their memory with our lives.

We see their faces in the stars.

(First published in To The Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices.)