A Lifetime Ago- Look, See, Pray

Eighty years… a huge conflagration on the beaches of France: and we must still remember, lest it happen again.

"Eighty years have washed away on the tides,
and the bombs and bones are gone.
Memories dwindle as the survivors depart- not many left now.
Sherman No.55 won't going anywhere,
not while the paint keeps the rust at bay.
We didn't think she'd rust out, not on that day-
the day of fire and flood, 
of shells and screams,
of mines and guns-
we didn't think we'd go home again,
not in one piece- if at all.
They tried to blast us- we pressed over the sands
of Arromanches and through toward Bayeaux.
Boys became men- the ones who lived.
If only war claimed the instigators
instead of the innocent...
For your tomorrow, we gave today."

D-Day marked the beginning of the end of the reign of Hitler and his extremist horde.  Many paid in blood and horror to end the war. If only we had learned the lessons: and would choose to live a better way.  May God have mercy on our souls.