Patriot
I am an American patriot…
I honor the memories of those brave men
Who stood at Lexington and Concord,
At Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Valley Forge,
At Brandywine, Cowpins and Yorktown.
I honor the Founding Fathers,
Giants in the cause of liberty and freedom,
Who gave us the Declaration of Independence,
The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights,
And set our nation on the path to greatness.
I honor the men in blue and in gray,
Who ripped the nation asunder during four years of war,
And then proceeded to mend the fabric
And make of us “...one nation, indivisible…”
I honor the farmers and the ranchers and the other settlers
Who pushed westward across the continent,
Taming the plains and scaling the mountains
As they stretched the nation “from sea to sea.”
I honor the men and women
Who donned their uniforms and marched off to war
To defend our liberty and freedom at
distant points on the earth
In four great conflicts and other battles in one century.
I honor the men and women, and children
Who strive to fulfill the promises of
“...liberty and justice for all…”
As they go about their daily lives
in this great land.
© 2005 Ralph Lowell Coleman, Jr. All rights reserved
