Poppy

Remember all the men who fell,
                            and women too,
and pin a bloom in your lapel,
                            of scarlet hue,
but do not celebrate their war,
presume to know what they died for,
and make this emblem of its gore
                            the next one's cue.

Don't let remembrance' solemn band
                            lure and recruit
those kids too young to understand
                            to make salute.
Don't wave the flag and beat the drum,
to rally all tomorrow's sons
and daughters to wars yet to come
                            to follow suit.

Sing mud and blood and shame and pride.
                            Sing want of sense.
Sing school friends gunned down side by the side,
                            for some pretence.
Appal with tales of hazards dire
in fields reduced to dub and mire
and decorated with barbed wire
                            your audience.

Evoke artillery's hellish choir
                            all out of tune
bombarding with anthems of fire
                            deafened dragoons,
machine guns beating out of time
where ragged ranks dance in a line
and in the barbed wire, arms entwined,
                            fall in a swoon.

(The photo is from the British Legion website, from which it has now been removed, showing children wearing 'Future Soldier' t-shirts. Contact them if you are concerned by this exploitation of remembrance and young people and the use of the poppy of remembrance as a recruitment tool)