• Poppies

    Poppies are flowers
    which come in a variety of colours:
    Red, black, yellow, orange,
    purple: gorgeous.

    I like poppies. So
    does my wife, and my kids.
    They’re beautiful things;
    So delicate and mild.

    Poppies are common here.
    We lie amongst them, sometimes,
    and it seems to me like
    they offer respite from the fire.

    My favourite used to be those
    poppies, laid out on cold beds;
    a symbol of remembrance
    adding a touch of red.

    But now I’m not so sure
    anymore; the red poppies have
    lost their charm. I saw a man, once, in a field of
    poppies, torn in half.

    Poppies have a lot of uses
    actually, did you know?
    Wars are fought over their seeds, the sweet
    sleep-bringing opium the goal.

    I fight in a war,
    and am surrounded by poppies.
    Their capsules full of seeds rustling gently in the wind
    as bullets soar and mortars fly.

    Poppies are flowers
    which come in a variety of colours:
    Red, black, yellow, purple;
    Poppies are flowers of war.