FREEDOM IS NOT FREE 
I watched the flag pass
by one day,
it fluttered in the
breeze.
A young Marine saluted
it, and
then, he stood at ease.
I looked at him in uniform
so young, so tall, so
proud;
with hair cut square
and eyes alert,
he'd stand out in any
crowd.
How many pilots' plane
shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were
soldiers graves?
No, Freedom is not free.
I heard the sound of
taps one night,
when everything was
still.
I listened to the bugler
play,
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how
many times,
that taps had meant
"AMEN".
When a flag had covered
a coffin,
of a brother or a friend.
I thought of all the
children,
of the mothers and the
wives
of fathers, sons, and
husbands
I thought about a graveyard
at the bottom of the
sea,
of unmarked graves in
Arlington.
No, Freedom is not Free.