To Them That Did What We Did Not Poem by Nellie Isabelle Steward Cooper

We sent substitutes, you know
And sat out safe...
We let others fight in our place
We let others die
Dipped in liquid hell and ice
And forever, hid our eyes

Slogged unbelieving through the
Human slaughter house
We did buy freedom for ourselves
At a dreadful cost
And strove not
Nor paid the debt

Do we forget what we must pay?
There's something there of honor

Hearts that once did miseries share
Lost now in stone
Our substitutes were
BOUGHT you see,
And we owe them yet...
Our liberty...

We owe them yet
Some vision of a world
Where honest men abide

Who will before they pass
Beyond our ken
Render some homage
To such men