Marshall Conyers wrote “Liberty’s Every Son and Daughter” (see below) a few weeks before July 4, 2012, to salute America’s soldiers.
The piece ran in a few newspapers in Conyers’ home state of North Carolina, but it hasn’t attracted a lot of attention.
On June 20, 2014, Conyers was a guest on the radio show “Talkback with Chuck Wilder on CRN” where he read the piece over the air.
Liberty‘s Every Son and Daughter
By Marshall Conyers
Though my name is lost among the twilight of the ages,
I would ask this solemn question of you now
Who Am I?
I, who felt the peppering muskets’ fire,
who faced the raging cannon roar
who saw the very earth itself run red at Lexington and Bunker Hill
I, who endured the bitter, ironclad wintryness of frozen Valley Forge
who gave of my youth and selfless blood
so that you might know the answer to the solemn question posed
Who Am I?
a loyal countryman of yours, I surely am indeed
a brother and a sister
a neighbor and a friend
I, who have a thousand names you cannot know,
ten thousand countless faces you’ve never seen before
yet, when duty, honor, country call,
you know me well by all of the remembered places I have been
Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill
I was there unyielding amidst the thundering shot and shell
Chateau Thierry, Belleau Wood, The Argonne
I stood bravely there as well
Tarawa, Anzio, Normandy, Okinawa
battlefields where I fought and fell and bled
Inchon, Con Thien, Desert Storm .
each sanctified by honor and the sacred roll calls of our dead
Who Am I?
you know me well by my footmarks
left traced in blood for you upon the many beaches of the earth
you know me by all the burning desert sands I strode
that still hold my bleached and whitening bones
you know me by the mountains I have climbed
the seven seas I’ve sailed
the strange and distant lands I’ve marched
the skies I’ve soared for you where no eagle ever dared
and you know me best by all the far and lonely places
where I lay dying spread-eagle on my back,
calling out in that final fading moment of my life for Mama
for she who loved me most with the last breath I drew
Who Am I?
within your heart of hearts, you know the answer well
I am every son and every daughter of this great land who ever gave their all for you
I am a youthful name chiseled for all eternity into endless rows of white marble stones that mark Liberty’s highest sacrifice
and though twilight must surely fall and my name be forever lost among the ages,
I would have it no other way
for interred within this hallowed earth, my bones rest quiet in peace at last,
and there they’ll gently molder
Who Am I?
I have a name
I am the American Soldier!