She Waves

“O say can you see by the dawn's early light”

Peering through the billowing smoke
Sir Francis Scott Key strained in hope
To see if, perhaps, Old Glory still flew
To look once more at the red, white and blue

“What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming”

When last he looked the night before
From his floating vessel far off shore
Above the fort she bravely waved
He strained to see if she’d survived

“Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight”

On a field of blue laid fifteen stars
With fifteen stripes laid out in bars
The largest flag known for that day
It could be seen from miles away

“O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming”

Proudly she waved on high through the night
Proudly she waved on high through the fight
If she would fall, the fort would be lost
Proudly she waved in spite of the cost

“And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there”

Straining to see her throughout the night
When bomb blasts flared she flashed into sight
The battle continued till the morning dawn
Through it all, Lady Liberty proudly flew on

“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

Francis Scott Key was witness that morn
Old Glory survived, though quite battle worn
Two hundred years later, his words still ring true
She still waves free; the red, white and blue

© 2013 Earl Parsons