Rick Elgersma wrote this poem in honor of and on behalf of the soldiers who gave the gift of life for our liberty so that we could live. This was also written in connection with the efforts of Rick & Monique Elgersma at Real Connections Counseling, who strive to touch the lives of the suffering every day.

Life of Liberty a poem by Rick J Elgersma

Their days ended in the mists of a theater full of grit and dust, in the dregs of the driest breath, on the stone hedged, swamp edged, helmet wedged earth

Where you might never hope to be or see what it did to the minds of the men and women nearby who make it home outside the box but inside their screaming heart

The mightiest test of the grateful The call of the drafted fateful That live with war in their hearts And the arms and legs Left behind

But never the men … never the men and women in or out of the box and always underneath the flag they all make it hope for for home where we just barely remember why we’re grateful

Short of the few and the brave enough to be our own people wrapped in flags and headstones the modern artwork of the free

Made of grit and dust from the dregs of the driest breath with bits of stone hedged, swamp edged, helmet wedged earth

Where we might never hope to be or see except for the tears that knew they were there and the hands that wrapped the flag between her fingers freezing time for a flash

A time when the smiles of last weeks call call lingers between her grief yes, grateful though I wish

I wish freedom were easier than flags between our fingers, I wish freedom were easier than leaning warrior over the fallen steeped in grief and glory

Made worth rising as they fall I wonder if that isn’t exactly what she thought in her grip of our colors The explosion of a grip of color

Red, white, and blue burst from the barrel rang in the screams of their deaths hallowed by the proud call of the free from the rooftops borne in the grip of Grit and dust, in the dregs of the driest earth

Where all people should stand on their own two feet, free and protected protected as they could be by those who leaned hard into liberty and died so that you and I can truly live.