A POEM ON VETERANS FROM A MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT

(Ed's Note: We learned recently that as part of a school contest, middle-school students at Oliveira were asked to create an original poem for competition. Although some students lifted entire poems out of the Internet (plagiarized), some came up with good stuff. Below, is one we though was outstanding. We post this without the student's name so as not to influence the competition.)

SO THAT I MAY

I still remember you running

Up and down the field,

Openly laughing as you ran

And I remember you

Coming home from camp

After you signed up to go,

Openly laughing, as you ran

To meet your loved ones in the rain

Time passed, wars raged on

And you wrote home, about the fights

And how you wished you could

Come home and run again, laughing

In the wind and in the rain

You finally did, in your dress blues

Your medals, and missing limbs

Pushed by your brother

Serious and grim

In your wheelchair

And I asked you, why you had gone

And you replied,

I used to run and laugh, and dream of home

To run and play and love and live

And I went, and came and now return

                                                                   So that you can