4,362 pairs of eyes

That will never see.

4,362 pairs of arms

That will never hug.

4,362 pairs of legs

That will never run.

4,362 voices

That will never laugh again.

4,362 tears of joy and sorrow

That will never be shed.

4,362 lives

Extinguished by the shot of a gun.

The bursting of a bomb.

The stab of a blade.

4,362 husbands,

Wives,

Sons,

Daughters,

That will never again see their loved ones.

These are the Americans,

Killed by the war in Iraq.

They went.

They fought.

They died.

They call out with phantom voices.

They call out and say;

"I am not a number! I am more.

I am the mother, who will never again hold

Her two year old daughter.

I am the father, who will never see his teenage son

Graduate from high school.

I am the wife, who can only hope

My husband will move on after my death.

I am the husband, who never got to tell his wife of fifty years

Goodbye.

I am the son, who never thanked his parents

For all they did for me.

I am the daughter, who never appreciated how hard

My single mom work to raise me properly.

I am the fiancé, who never told my bride-to-be

Exactly how much I loved her.

Do not think of us only as numbers.

Think of us as what we are.

Loved ones, lost forever,

Never to see the sun again.

Never to hold those dear to us.

Never to show our love

To anyone.

Do not dismiss us."

They cry out to us,

And we ignore them.

We see them only as one of the many.

Not as individuals.

4,362 Americans dead.

4,362 who died for us to live peacefully.

4,362.

4,362.

4,362.