Roger Liebmann

POPPY

In OZ see the Poppy and words: “Lest We Forget”
But what is this memory we wish not to forget?
Is it the excitement and the patriotism of the day,
Or is it the pain, the terror or the smell of decay?

Is this war theme an adventure for our young men
With the mandatory rite of manhood of a cultic ken
Or is it a warning of the stupidity of mass assassination
With its ugly total destruction without sweet mitigation?

Do we look into our rear view mirror at WW1 and seeing
Useless death or making and saving of our national being?

Submitted for the November 2008 IWVPA Club Theme Project, “Poppy”