A flower,
Blood-red, fiery, blazing yet not burning,
Grows from the earth


Watered by the blood and tears
Of dying children clutched to the
The ******* of their mothers’ skeletons


Planted in soil
Rich with the bones of soldiers, of warriors,
Of fathers, brothers and sons long dead


Aired by the final breath
Of a thousand innocent souls
Crying in anguish
Screaming in pain
Fading into nothingness
Dying away.


Growing
Developing in all its beauty,
All its deadly beauty,
Death’s flower of doom,
The lily of the valley of death
Death’s ever beautiful
Ever lovely,
Ever deadly rose of sharon.
War.