Return to me, Still

by  deana cooper barnes

For sunsets and the waters
That reflect them by the sea
For boys and girls and laughter
And thoughts their lives will be

Splashing in the water now,
Little silhouettes in the sun-
The day grows dark so quickly now,
Their Childhood is spun

For youth is just a moment
Like the mist in morning rain-
And now we have to say good bye
Our brave heart on the plane.

For some they choose to rise and soar
Freedom loves to fly!
What blood line came this soldier,
The jewel that lights my eye?

Where came this noble character
To answer such a call,
In days of never ending war
This one who is our all?

Rather, with the free birds soar!
How much, spreading wings should fly-
Will thoughtful smiles return to me?
Or, Was brave heart born to die?

Are there numbers in the numbered
To pay Freedom’s debt for peace?
Has the toll been prearranged,
And from whom it is received?
Did they say yes, and choose somehow,
To not live so very long?
To die young in the battle fields;
To never sing victors song?

Was this loved soul a sojourner,
To achieve freedom for the rest;
To pay the price to give their all,
giving only but their best?

And in that knowing, no one knows
Just why it has to be
That freedom exacts a heavy toll
And never given free.

Are they chosen from our arms
So quickly, to be torn?
Christ himself, disclosed the cross,
“t’was for this that I was born …”

A question dare not spoken
A thought weathered to defy
For the bounty of freedom’s garden
Was brave heart born to die?

***

Of Many Wars, Defeats And Failures, Still – Ezekiel 17:22-24

Says the Lord GOD, “I will also take a new sprig from the top of a cedar tree and set it apart; I will pluck a tender one and carry it, and plant it on a high towering mountain. “On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, that it may spring forth with bough and branch and bear fruit and become a stately cedar. Where birds of every kind will nest under it; they will nest safely in the shade of its branches. “All the trees of such a field will KNOW that I am the LORD; I bring down the proud, exalt the low, and dry up the green tree, while making that dry tree [thought to be lost] to flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”