Tears Under the Flag

By: Felix L. Perry

Young child crying with his mother bitter tears

By the gravesite marked throughout the years

For the man who gave him cuddly teddy bears

The father who once smiled away all his fears

A teenager with nose ring and dyed purple hair

Stood alone by the granite stone that was there

He whispered all the things that he had to share

Somehow he felt his Dad would know and care

Young soldier lays on a blooded patch of ground

The sound of death and destruction all around

Like his father before him he was also duty bound

Now he too paid the final price without a sound

Back home now buried close beside his loving Dad

A mother accepts a flag like the one she already had

Silently cursing wars that seem like a passing fad

Paid for in endless teardrops of those forever sad…