The Nevada Appeal is accepting Thanksgiving poems, no more than 100 words in length, through Nov. 18. Email poems to editor@nevadaappeal.com, or fax them to 775-887-2420, or mail them to the Nevada Appeal, 580 Mallory Way, Carson City NV 89701. Poems will be printed on Sunday, Nov. 22.
We Can
We can go “over the river and through the woods” because they are willing to go through deserts, swamps, mine-fields and other no-man’s lands.
We can luxuriate in fine clothes because they are willing to don flack vests, helmets and packs.
We can have turkey and all the trimmings because they are having MREs.
We can be with our families for the holidays because they are alone in bunkers and foxholes.
We can play on our computers and cell phones because they anxiously await a letter from home.
We can celebrate our freedoms because they have surrendered theirs to follow orders.
We can feel at peace in our homes because they are enduring the hell of war.
We can enjoy parades because they are marching in foreign countries.
We can plan our vacations and trips because they go where they are told.
We can ride in air-conditioned cars and convertibles because they are in Humvees and troop carriers.
We can travel on cruise ships and airliners because they keep our oceans and airways safe.
We can be thankful for having been “endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights” because they are willing to protect those rights.
We can worship that Creator as we choose because they witness things that make them doubt His very existence.
Yes, we can — because THEY do.
Gene “DH” Duncker
Carson City
Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan
Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan, did you hear what the judges said?
They said your five meant nothing ... now that they are dead!
The flag they gave their lives for? It doesn’t mean a thing!
One can burn it, tear it up, throw it in a ring.
They can walk on it, call it art, wear it on their ass
Not even caring that their actions are crude and very crass!
The price of freedom we had to pay so they could vent their hate
On the symbol of our unity. No war has been their fate.
They never fought in trenches on some God-forsaken land,
Weren’t shot from the sky, blown-up at sea, as were the Sullivans.
Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan, the family is falling apart.
Home, baseball and apple pie is just old-fashioned art.
Youth yells and screams for learning, then what do they do?
Attack those very people who made their dreams come true.
Mr. And Mrs. Sullivan, you wouldn’t know just why and how
Modern women kill their babies, compliments of now.
American Civil Liberties does not exist to be
A protector of all basic rights. They are of disparity!
Youth waste their lives on drugs. Gotta do their thing!
Their “thing” has brought us AIDS! Hear the death-knell ring?
The country that you lived for, gave all that you had,
Is now in such a sorry-state. It truly is quite sad
That all the American Sullivans, regardless of their name,
Gave the very last breath they had to give. Their children brought her shame!
Mary Santomauro
Stagecoach
