Who Lies Here?

Who Lies Here?

who lies here? 

a cemetery 

a headstone 

an urn 

a photograph 

perhaps no final resting place 

perhaps many

who lies here? 

someone with a birth weight  

delivered, diapered 

swaddled in a blanket 

placed into the waiting arms 

of a tearful mother 

    full of hope for her baby

who lies here?

someone who stood up 

      took first steps

fell down but 

      kept standing up 

who lies here?

someone who stood up 

in first grade 

  recited the Pledge of Allegiance        

      before ever learning to read 

who lies here? 

someone who stood up 

       for a friend 

on the playground 

       or in a war zone 

   someone who 

        had someone else’s back 

who lies here?

someone who stood up 

for what was right 

       who voted 

         who lived with passion

           who felt conviction

              who bravely took a side 

who lies here?

someone who stood up 

     and made a promise

        and kept it 

someone who stood up 

  who signed up

      who enlisted  

who lies here? 

someone who stood up

   for a country 

someone who stood up 

   for rights 

        and freedom 

who stood up for family

who stood up for strangers 

who stood up for you 

who lies here? 

someone with a death weight 

delivered home

swaddled in blues 

entombed in a flag-draped casket 

eternally held 

    in the indebted arms  

      of a nation 

whose hearts still beat 

to the marching cadence 

of the memory of 

one who stood up 

who lies here