Monday, May 28, 2018

On Memorial Day (May 28, 2018)

In Flanders Field the British dead were left
To molder in summer's sun.  Red poppies
Grew in earth turned by shells.   Mothers, bereft,
Wept in London.  Paperboys hawked copies
Of the Daily Mail with "YPRES AGAIN!"
Across the head.  The politicians talked.
Boys in knickers still at school dreamed of when
They too might fight the Hun.   John Keats once walked
In fields of flowers listening for a bird
To call him back to something close to peace;
Wan, weakened, waiting for a single word,
To end a single line, he tried to cease
The ceaseless war against the waste of time.
But soldiers know such wars aren't fought in rhyme.


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