Memorial Day – 2026... the brightest and I attest

lifeless bodies bedecked, 
donned and hashtagged 
with trappings of battle hymns

strong and brave men and women 
gave their level best

crème de la crème

strongest and bravest
leaving grieving significant others

with emotional agony

within treasured chest

o'er the redoubt

the enemy did crest,
where lovely bones

of forebears for everest

battling hostility over

well fought over ass strew turf

among warring factions finessed

in manicured cemeteries 
(sacred burial grounds) ye guessed,
whence reduced to lovely bones
casualty of war didst buzzfeed
seconds before being gunned down
unlike in practice drills
with levity and camaraderie 
found gallows humor to jest
peace mongers lost stalwart soldier,
where moments before comrades 
in arms did hotly protest
fealty of instruments to slay
wantonly and indiscriminately

self evident with dead bodies 
who gave their last 
dying breath as testament 
strewn as they were felled
helter skelter across killing fields

forsook their lives eternal peace they rest
mortally wounded forever immune 
to post traumatic stress
honored and revered succumbed mortal 
electric kool-aid acid test
though I question if sacrificed life

worth a spit of land to wrest,
but nevertheless with bravado
gave full measure of primal zest.

Now pardon ma faux pas 
indicative of generic geek

a reasonable poo whet tick rhyme,
from dis po' pa try'n to be sleek
original poem crafted years gone by

necessitated minor tweak

where sense and sensibility weak.

Officially called Decoration Day

proclaimed on 5 May 1868

by General John Logan

first observed on 30 May 1868

Waterloo N.Y. officially

declared the birthplace

by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966.

Though eight score minus one year

(minor emendation regarding time frame
since original date I crafted poem)
Appomattox, a psychological balm
helped stitch frayed nation to calm
until hell on earth 
killed, obliterated, and rained napalm,
(a portmanteau of two

of the constituents

of the original thickening

and gelling agents:

coprecipitated aluminium salts

of naphthenic acid

and palmitic acid)

served as silent psalm

since bombardment at Fort Sumter qualm
including intervening wars
such as raging battles on the Somme
and the war between 
Northern and Southern Vietnam.

National holiday most adept

at uniting Civil War fallen soldiers 
when fiercely armed 
as brothers in arms crept
taking pages from playbook 
of previous brilliant ploys
fueled the battle plans except 
when they went off script

against opposing forces, which took 
by surprise “enemies” or found inept

ill prepared troops with surprise mortal 
blow which ambushed attackers leapt

mowing down valiant soldiers, thus 
becoming slain grooms who eternally slept

sorrowful lamentable hymns from 
widowed brides tears wept.

Cease fire that day

terminating internecine flay

o’er mounds of earth whence 
bones o boys donned blue or gray

a day of remembrance for those 
who died in our nation's service lay

celebrated this last Monday every May

one must know tis not about division

boot about reconciliation 
and sacrifice brave heroes did pay,

the price of their lives for granted 
freedoms enjoyed as american lee-way.

Forsooth, now we cherish too, the Poppy red
that grows on fields where valor led,
it seems to signal to the skies
that blood of heroes never dies
acknowledged courtesy bunting
(strings of colorful, monochrome,

beige triangular flags and lengths

of fabric in the colors of national flags
engraved name upon tombstone
emblazoned words recognizing 
ultimate service to life, 
liberty and perhaps fresh cut flowers 
memorializing plethora of unspoken hashtags

gathered and draped into swags

or pleated into fan shapes) 
visibly draped and/or hung 
honoring the dead.