Decoration Day

Decoration Day

I recited this poem at a Memorial Day school program in sixth grade, wearing a prairie dress my mother sewed for me. I don't remember the author, or one line of the poem, but here it is for all veterans, and for my grandfather's an everyone else in my family who served, and for my students in the military:

PD image of the Star Spangled Banner

My Grandpa’s old and kind of lame,

He doses in his chair,

And when the family goes some place,

He stays and doesn’t care.

 

He’d rather stay at home,

He says,

Than dress to go uptown,

And when he knows there’s

Company come,

He’s always lying down.

 

But once a year there’s quite a change on

Decoration Day.

Then Grandpa wears his uniform and

Hurries me away,

 

[To see a big Parade] . . . .

 

The shiny cars with great folks in,

The flower girls in white,

The bands that play the national airs,

With all their wind and might,

 

And the boys that wear OD

Come through,

And straight and tall,

The wind a blowing

Through his hair,

My Grandpa Stands Through it