Honoring Stone

Honoring Stone

written by: S.D. Kilmer

@SDKilmer

The honor guards,
Sentinels. Androids
They might as well be!
As they stand and move
With mechanical precision.
Exactly Twenty-one steps
then turn and face the Tomb
for no less, no more than 21 seconds.
As a Twenty-one gun salute.

Where is the honor,
In a veteran’s suicide?
Where are the medical guards?
For veterans’ post-war suffering.

There are no guards
—Well maybe local police
and a twenty-one bullet spray —
And there is no honor,

Where Veterans beg:
In the streets and sidewalks.
On highway on and off ramps.
At every busy intersection.

Where Veterans sleep:
Beneath recycled boxes.
Beneath bridges and overpasses.
Or camouflaged beneath a bush or tree.
At night.

But the government
honor stones,
It guards well monuments.

Human citizens are
Merely useful.
Is there honor in being used?

• About
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S. D. Kilmer

S. D. Kilmer is a frequent contributor to Spillwords. His poems have appeared in literary anthologies variously edited by Steve Lester Carr, Stephen Sutton, Steve Wheeler, Rick Lupert and Robin Barratt. He has also appeared in other online literary eZines and regularly at his website - S. D. KILMER'S EXISTENTIAL LIFE. An Adoptee Survivor, Euro-American of Anglo-Irish roots, an Orthodox Christian, he writes from his hometown in Central New York State.

Latest posts by S. D. Kilmer (see all)

• Honoring Stone - January 17, 2023
• Too Much Silence - September 23, 2022
• I Made It Up - June 23, 2022