Poppies and Baby's Breath

Young men left all they had known
foxhole faith so far from home.
There is no room for ambivalence
while mortars steal your innocence.
 
Mustard gas and blistered lungs
dying heroes left unsung.
Doughboys hum pack up your troubles
while their friends lie under rubble.

So on this day filled with elevens
pray that all lay down their weapons.
Peace it splinters and decays,
our broken world in disarray.

Bow your heads for those now gone
and hope today we might move on
past the carnage, revenge and death,
hold tight to poppies and baby's breath.

Reviews

[Baby Ricochet]

WWI. The epic of Epic catastrophes. You can't even say it was of biblical proportions because it dwarfs everything in the bible. (Anything that might have actually happened anyway) WWI only plays second fiddle to it's b*****d off spring WWII in sheer scope of global insanity and yet their are many who seem to have forgotten about it. That's just wrong.

[icelandicblue]

So true...the further in time we get away from it the dimmer the memories. All wars are terrible but the world had never seen anything like it before. It was said to be the war to end all wars but as you said WWII took its place. Armistice Day, Nov. 11 came out of WWI so I thought I'd write about that. Both my grandfathers fought in it and my dad fought in WWII and yet what I know of both primarily comes from books. Thanks so much for reading and commenting on this one. Loved your "b*****d offspring" comment.

[Baby Ricochet]

WWI and the occupation of Iraq have several parallels. Those who started both grossly miscalculated what they were unleashing, both quickly spiraled out of control, there was no real victory for any side and they both spawned b*****d offspring including all out war on civilians and genocide and the most messed up part about it all is, it's going to happen again. Sooner or later I believe the US is going to get sucked into a ground war along side Israel against a massive private army much like ISL who rose from ISL's ashes. All we need is another terrorist type event on US soil and a brutally hawkish administration combined with an assault on Israel and it's Armageddon in the middle east with the US leading the charge. Mark my words, this is very, very likely to happen.

[icelandicblue]

I agree with you. Many years ago I was told by someone the end of the world would come out of a war in the middle east. We never learn.

[Daisy Marie]

Very powerful, great poem.

[icelandicblue]

Thank you for reading.