Decorated

Photo by Todd Jenkins

It's painfully ironic that we use

the same word to describe

the delicate and often fru-fru trappings

of our everyday excess and eccentricity

that we use to identify both

the survivors of war's carnage

and our remembrance and honoring

of their final resting places.

May our decorating of the graves

of our decorated ones awaken us

to the deep truth of both

our debt to them and their families,

as well as our desperate need

to find our collective way

to a path decorated by Peace.

© 2014 Todd Jenkins