Patton Poem for Every Soldier by Rick Celmer

The soldiers have fallen
In line
Forming the ranks
One last time
Standing at attention, no one cracks a smile
The heavy silence and the long cold stares
Are forever their style.
A name and a date is all an eye can see,
What’s happened to the Toms or Johns
Or the ghost of Patton and the memories that
They will always be?
Somehow it escapes through the trees
And birds still sing
A lullaby
To caress the soldiers back to sleep.