Wrote Evidence of the Footfalls of Freedom and published it in the This Journal Belongs To Jakeb Hoke collection with the novel, Through the Kindness of Ravens.
Evidence of the Footfalls of Freedom was inspired by something I had read in one or more of many books on the Revolutionary War. A commander of the Continental Army had written in their journal how they had looked down at the ground from riding their horse beside the marching army to find many of the soldiery were barefoot and bleeding on the snow.
Evidence of the Footfalls of Freedom
To believe in something
So much as to willingly
Subject mind, body and soul
To the cruelest elements of nature
And the enemy as well
To fight for it
Thus two enemies
The obvious
That represents the anti-cause
The other
The arena in which the cause is fought
Soldiers of the Revolutionary War
Their barefoot footprints of blood
Left in the mounting snow
And like the snow melts
As does their memory go
Though every American should
Does every American know
That food and supplies were short
Along with sharing sentinel duty
Was the sharing of shoes and coat
That before freedom surrounded us
Its fighters were surrounded
By enemy and cold
Soldiers of the Revolutionary War
Their barefoot footprints of blood
Leave behind a trail to freedom
Along the frozen shore
Though every American should
Does every American know?
If the Continental Army wanted shelter
They chopped the wood, then built by hand
While red coats hung on the hooks
Of homestead granted on their homeland
Soldiers of the Revolutionary War
Their barefoot footprints of blood
Though tread on their colonies’ own land
Not a country of their own behind them
Though every American should
Does every American know?
That the Continental Army did not win the war
You may believe whatever you choose
But to put it correctly, it was more
That it was a war they did not lose
Minutemen of the Revolutionary War
When called to action, they did trod
Their obstacles by far more taxing
Than the taxing of the King
Though every American should
Does every American know?
Bullet holes in his coat and
Horses shot out from under him
But he’d jump right on another then
Back out in front to lead again
Soldiers of the Revolutionary War
Their barefoot footprints of blood
Inspired by the actions of their leader
A fearless General on a white horse
Though every American should
Does every American know?
That liberty was once in front of us
That freedom was once the goal
And for it thousands died for us
As for those that suffered, ten-fold
And so it was no tea party
But there was one I am told
Though the British were not invited
They were welcomed to go home
As petitioned by the men the minute
They signed what could have been
Either a declaration of independence
Or their very own death warrants
History proved not to be the latter
The bloody barefoot footprints
Left by bloody barefoot soldiers
Were not left in vain
Though the snow long melted
Their imprints in history remain