{"id":296241,"date":"2025-06-02T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T11:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=296241"},"modified":"2025-05-27T08:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T07:33:14","slug":"i-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/06\/i-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"I Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

“I remember the weight of life and death at the end of our guns.”
Photo: Chris Hondros\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

26 May 2025 – A Poem<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remember the heat.
\nA dry, suffocating torrent.
\nThe blazing, burning sun
\nbaking the tarmac.
\nNo clouds, no trees,
\njust a furnace of hate.
\nI feel the hate.
\nI remember the heat.<\/p>\n

I remember the dust.
\nFilling our nostrils, caking our mouths.
\nIt rained from the sky
\nand rose from the ground.
\nWith every turn of the tire
\nand step of the foot there was dust.
\nDust, everywhere dust.<\/p>\n

I remember the heaviness.
\nThe helmet pressing on my head,
\nthe armor squeezing my chest.
\nI remember the weight of life and death
\nat the end of our guns.<\/p>\n

I remember the fear.
\nAboard the eight-wheeled coffin,
\nsurrounded by a thin shield of steel.
\nThe fear of the streets.
\nThe fear of the smiling people.
\nThe fear of no return.<\/p>\n

I remember their faces.
\nSo young and so stoic.
\nWhy couldn\u2019t they have been old men?
\nNot the young.
\nNot the young who would never grow old.
\nI remember their faces.
\nI cannot forget their faces.<\/p>\n

I remember the loss.
\nThe searing pain of the unfilled boots,
\nthe solemn speeches,
\nthe lowered ramp and the flag-draped coffin.
\nA hole so deep in my heart
\nonly God could fill it.<\/p>\n

I remember the letters.
\nWritten again, and again,
\nand again, and again.
\nWhen will the letters stop?
\nWhy were they so young and stoic
\nand brave and caring?
\nWhat will I say this time?<\/p>\n

I remember the sorrow.
\nThe sound of \u201cTaps\u201d on the hillside
\ncovered with the graves of heroes.
\nA tearful widow, a weeping child,
\na folded flag.
\nI remember the sorrow
\nso clearly.<\/p>\n

Their shadows grow dim
\nand I fight to remember.
\nTheir stories grow old
\nand I must fight to remember.<\/p>\n

They gave everything.
\nThe least I can do is remember.
\nI remember. I must remember.
\nI must always remember.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – rsn.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 May 2025 – A Poem – “I remember the weight of life and death at the end of our guns.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":296242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[1169,868,95],"class_list":["post-296241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-death","tag-poetry","tag-us-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296247,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296241\/revisions\/296247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}