Poetry: Memorial Day

Photo by Len Villano.

by E. E. Lewis

With cherry blossoms in full display,

and trillium in the woods at play,

as on our drive I raise the red white and blue,  

my memories unfurl with their flutters

to a distant bugle and the calls it blew,

and prompt my whistling of “To The Colors.”

Though once I khaki proudly wore

and served our country in time of war,

I wasn’t called to leave our shores.

And thus a debt I owe but cannot pay

to all who fought on distant shores,

to those whose lives war took away.

Elmer and his wife Ann Lewis divide their time between Gills Rock and Evanston, Ill., where he is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. Among his books is Masterworks of Technology: The Story of Creative Engineering, Architecture, and Design.