TAPS

ARLINGTON CEMETERY - A few hours after dawn's early light, when the grass is still wet from the morning dew - A brother is laid to rest..
Two buglers play "Echo Taps". The music seems to touch one's soul as it melancholy sound reaches out across the cemetery - like the rings in water after a stone as been thrown in - past head stones that have heard it a thousand times before. Yet they seem to weep from its vibrations as it passes by, as the wind gathers it up, and sends it out of the cemetery - past the tomb of the Unknowns - who know its melody all too well.
The wind softly moves it down to The Wall, where it lingers, slowly moving through the crowd of people gathered there. Gently it touches each name on its journey down the Wall - `til it gets to the last name - from the last day.
Its journey now complete, it slowly dissipates - leaving in its wake a feeling that you have been touched by some kind of grace, now buried deep inside your heart.
Its melody lingers long after the music's last notes - like the cries of angels, never-to-be-forgotten...

©2001 - Bruce Knipp