Ode to Arlington West at Santa Barbara

Ode to Arlington West at Santa Barbara

To honor M/Sgt J.G. Kincaid, Jr.; Lt. Col. James and Shirley Kennedy;

Sgt. Robert Potter.

Arlington West at Santa Barbara

Ten years bearing witness to scores of wartime dead.

Years of toil and dedication and sweat

etched in the silhouette of every faded footstep in the sand

Here seagulls fly over and daily stand in formation like sentries on the beach - come wind or calm

and cormorant perch atop the wooden posts at dawn and in the noonday sun.

Sundays came and went

Crosses went up and were taken down.

Flags were raised and lowered in due respect

Faithful stood and walked among the crowd and loved ones found their loved ones's names beribboned standing duty  in the sand.

Tears were shed for those whose names were written and those whose names we carried in our hearts.

This tear-drenched sand rendered sacred by our presence and, in its ebb and flow, the tide claims its everlasting salt;

its worth forever mingled with the sea.

Here we remember those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan;

and through them every war-dead:

Those who succumbed in a desert storm

and by association those whose wounded

hearts and mangled bodies lived long enough to come back home only to crumble on the doorsteps of their birth.

Here's to those who died from any war - every war -

On rural roads across the desolate plains; on urban streets and boulevards;

in run-down crevices and cracks;

in make-shift shelters from the storms;

their minds etched with horrid acts of inhumanity.

Neither rank nor privilege; no class, no hierarchy nor hoarded stores of grain

can hide from sight the simple crosses -

row on row - all equal in their silent witness; deafening testimony to the awful cost of war.

Here palm trees sway in stately splendor like cedars in ancient Lebanon.

Here white crosses stood like red poppies on a distant battlefield.

Here in the face of every blue-bright morning; in the sight of every red-tinged sunset, memory resides.

Seagulls will still stand facing the sunset. Visitors will still visit this hallowed place

where martyred names stood duty on the pebbled shore.

Here's to the memories of veterans past.

Here's to the hope that there will be no veterans of future wars.

Here's to the Veterans for Peace.

Here’s to the citizens of good-will,

and to all who came and will come

to this place of remembrance.

Here's to Arlington West

at Santa Barbara

Here's to Peace -

Forever.

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle – November 10, 2013

All Rights Reserved   Santa Barbara, CA

Photo by Paul Wellman