Once more it is the anniversary of your passing,
The velvety nights, the dewy, fog-shrouded days have
Silently slipped away.
Kings and kingdoms have arisen and fallen this past year.
More man and heroes alike played out their destinies.
The great works of men's hands have perished and vanished.
Noble deeds and cowardly sins marched across the great stage
of life.
Fair, tender lilies have been born, while tired, wilted oaks
Have suffered and died in anguish
Perhaps you watched it all from your lofty perch-from floating
Glorious blue and fluffy, whipped, frothy white.
Perhaps it was you when the leaves stop the tall trees rustled
In the summer night.
Was it you? That glance I felt behind me, but when I turned,
No one was there?
Was it you? That soft footstep that whispered across the bare
Floor at evening dusk?
Was it you? That glimpse in the crowd, a halo of golden curls:
The lilt of a young voice, laughing merrily?
Was it you? The dream, so real I could almost feel your touch?
Only to awaken to stark reality again and again!
You are not forgotten, my gallant young son! Nor shall you
Ever be! Your record stands for all time, for all the world
To read:unblemished, golden, sincere.
For it is true that the good die young; the tenderest heart,
The proudest frame, the noblest character; all seem to go
Earliest.
But I remember you, Reggie, my son. I remember!

Reggie Dale Eastup was killed June 20,1975, at the age of twenty-two, in a motorcycle-truck accident on Highway 50, between Greenville and Commerce, Texas.