Today, Indiana sadly buried one of its own <br />A young man killed in a foreign combat zone <br />A kid really, he was only nineteen <br />He had always wanted to be a Marine <br /> <br />Just two summers ago he won a ribbon at the fair <br />For his Charolais bull that he called Pierre <br />He left for basic training a week after graduation <br />A captain read aloud his Purple Heart citation <br /> <br />For mortal wounds received from a roadside bomb <br />Then the internment flag was presented to his mom <br />She'd give up the rest of her days just to hold her Jim <br />But the military refused her request to see him <br /> <br />A miracle baby, he was their one and only son <br />She didn't have him until she was forty-one <br />Her husband died when Jim was just nine <br />When a sleepy trucker crossed the center line <br /> <br />The rifle team fired and the bugler played <br />Her preacher spoke and the visitors prayed <br />For Indiana's newest gold star mother <br />Everyone hopes there will never be another<br /><br />Charles Hancock<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gold-star-mother/
