Page 106 - A Soldiers Exposition
P. 106
After a decade's effort and legislation signed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, the beautiful statue,
designed by gifted sculptor Glenna Goodacre, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, graces the hallowed ground of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial forever. For the first time in America's history, a memorial that honors
women's patriotic service was dedicated in the nation's capital.
www.VietnamWomensMemorial.org
Suitcase Full of Secrets
By Michael J. Martin & Tim Holiday
She's got a Suitcase Full of Secrets; that she's lookin' to unload...
Baggage that she carries with her everywhere she goes...
On her wrist there is a bracelet; with a name she might have known...
A friend or a lover lost; who never came back home...
And her eyes have looked into the eyes of martyrs...
Her hands have held their beating hearts...
And knowin' only makes it harder...
And believin' hurts too much to start...
Turn away from the room for the dyin'... Keep your mind on keepin' one alive...
Turn away from the screamin' and the cryin'... It's the only way one will survive...
With her Suitcase Full of Secrets... she stops and stands awhile...
And stares into the faces of The Statue of Three Men...
And they remind her of the soldiers that she'd only known awhile...
She wonders if they made it home and what became of them...
She didn't even know their names but she kept smilin'...
She'd learned long ago not to cry...
But still there's the ghost of emotion...
And the beating of the heart she can't deny...
With her Suitcase Full of Secrets... she walks down to The Wall...
Finally sets it down and shakes her head and starts to cry...
Then a soldier stands beside her... puts his hand upon her shoulder...
Gently lifts her face and looks for somethin' in her eyes...
Says, "I remember your sad eyes smilin'...
Though I don't even know your name and you don't know mine...
But I never even had the chance to tell you...
Thank you for keepin' me alive... Thank you for keepin' me alive!”
http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/poems_2.php
