We must wear a poppy
Posted by John, November 13th, 2016 - under Armistice Day, Poems, Poems for a new world, Poppies.
We must wear a poppy
We must wear a poppy
Today
That is the new way
Of freedom, evidently
Where men and women died
For that lie
And the rich victors
Retain their property
To spread their wealth
Footnoted democracy
And freedom
We join in
To beat them,
The enemy, just like us
Hard working
In God we trust
And our leaders
We are their bleeders
The bled, the maimed
The dead (of our side of course)
We worship a man
With a horse
A pacifist,
Wobbly against war
The whore of the system,
Broken, bespoken,
It fits amid the mud and blood
Of profits’ shore
We cry, no more,
The soldiers rebel
Send the generals
To their hell
And the warmongers to perfidy
We cannot be free
In their chains
Our aims must be
New, a new society
Where war is memory
For its past
Not the last but one
But none
None at all
Join before we fall
To the khaki call
Of rich men past and present
Intent on our descent
Into the fields of death
Where poppies die
And lie amid the ruins
Ruined,
Like young men with arms
Killing young men with arms
Presented as charms
What sick society is this?
Give it the kiss
Of death.