At the Un-National Monument... by William Stafford

This is the field where the battle didn’t happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.

Birds fly here without any sound, 
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed—or were killed—on this ground 
hallowed by neglect and an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

~from Good Poems, American Places, selected by 
 Garrison Keillor (Penguin Books, 2011)