Nebraska Artists and then some ...

  I have stood beside you so tall and strong at the peak of your young lives  . . . it is hard to remember memories of you learning how to crawl, continuously falling yet crowing in new achievements. At last, walking in triumph upon two shaky little feet, it is hard to remember old memories. Your first day of school ... scared, shaking inside,  a strong person on the outside . . . another on the inside. You never wanted to be anything less than perfect  yet not wanting anyone to know ... that other person. It is hard to remember old memories of your later years, bikes and toys filling our yard. At times I would awake to find your friends, escaping life by quietly entering that back door,  filled with anger, seeking someone to care,  filled with a need for love and acceptance, seeking peace. It is hard to watch teenage struggles, my own and yours, heartbreaking and unreal appearing to destroy, but only age-old steps in learning what life was about ...  yet always unable to

  a bugle's tune is playing  and its playing just for me six soldiers carrying me to that final resting place I saw my mother's tears down her sweet small face I wanted to smile at her and say don't you cry, my dear I went to fight for what I thought was right perhaps I was wrong but I would do it all over again  I would go fight to have a life -- by giving my own life  ~ Art by Nancy L. Young-Houser and Poem by Sandra S. Marquiss