The flag hangs in the window, only three corners tacked down
- Forlornly it droops, its patriotism stooped –
As the red and white stare out at the world, wearing a frown.

The ivy smacks of Eden, a paradise in a cage
- Entangled in the wire fence, snaking exotic and dense –
Coiling its way past the bouquet, an epitaph to a grieving mothers rage

Warriors of the Empire, heads bent low to the driving rain
- The fight ******, their defiance bucked –
Sheep bleating in time, soldiers marching in line, to the shepherds refrain