Those poppy fields were lifeless,
but now they shine with light.
The war has made them bleeding,
the Peace has made them smile.

Each flower is a soldier,
who sacrificed his life,
who gave up his own future
to make our future count.

Each flower tells a story
of man and woman's fight,
you hear them in the glory
of petals shining bright.

Shhh, quiet, can you hear this?
The flowers -  making sound.

The unsung heroes singing
the song of joy - and life.

I was down at the  legion
Knocking back one or two
When in walked an old member
Who fought in World War Two

I got in line behind him
And when he ordered  his brew
I made a signal to the barkeep
I paid for his  too

He turned and said  thank you
I'm on a pension as a vet
1100 dollars monthly
Is all the cash I get

I said to him "no, thank you"
I'm happy to buy your beer
I owe a lot to you
I owe you all that I hold dear

He said to me "t'was nothing"
"you would do the same"
"And I'd do it again"
"If the call ever came"

He looked round the room
And he sipped at his beer
Then he leaned in real close
So just I could hear

"Son, I'll be honest"
"And I don't make no bones'
"The kids of today"
"They just ain't got the stones"

"The stones to step forward"
"To get up and fight"
"To defend flag and country"
"To do what is right"

I said, in most cases
He'd hit the nail on the head
It's a battle at worst
To get a kid out of bed

The times are a'changing
It was different back then
It took a lot less
To turn boys into men

"A soldier's a cowboy
He's one for the books
There's not many in here
I can tell with one look"

"I just did my duty
No less and no more
War isn't a game
Where someone keeps score"

He sat back and his eyes closed
Said "the next one's on me"
"I don't drink that  much
But, at most I have three"

I accepted his offer
And we talked a bit more
We talked baseball, and race cars
But not of the war

That was the past
And the past is long dead
Except for the pictures
He has in his head

I went up to the bar
And I set up an account
I would cover his tab
To a certain amount

What he did for our country
And what he did for me
Is worth a couple of beer
Or at least, each day....three

Here we lie beneath the poppies
Blowing in the Flanders air
Do not forget our sacrifice
Do not forget that we were there

Young men forged in heat of battle
Neighbors, brothers, sons
Lost in time, with just our markers
Lost to lie, beneath the sun

Remember us as men of valor
Remember what we came to do
We came, and died, do not forget us
We gave our lives up, just for you

Forget us not, beneath the poppies
Where the sky is no longer dark
Remember us as long dead heroes
We came, we fought, we left our mark

Forget us not, please pass the torch on
Forget us not, more than this day
Forget us not, we were all soldiers
And we remain so....all the way!!!

Forget us not....

they told us it would be a holiday
get to see the world
get out of this town where nothing good ever happens
and do some good for ourselves
our country

so we went
hardly literate
without the capacity to even begin to conceive what the machines were
we thought they were toys
they told us nothing

so now we stand in this red finger paint
unsure whether we caused it or not
and our loved ones are so far away
but i'm coming home, mother, i'm coming
i'll get away.

It is the soldier born of blood
That finds his bath irrevocably red
Crimson stains cloud his head
Not a part of him comes home unbled
But the bloodiest of wounds
The bleedings that never stops
Does not come from cut, or contusion
Not from the legions leaking lesions  
But from the dreams that wake him screaming
Turning a once wise and strong warrior
Into a broken ****** baby doll

You are about to enter

a Soldier’s Creed

Where my loved one knew

that running and being

were of equal value


She was on the edge,

but I told her, “Be strong.”

She spoke about her

cousin, Death


She told me about

the people she would

meet in Heaven


I know this much is true.

I enclosed her within

a burned heart-shaped

box

Identical to a safe haven


She wanted to be released from

the tyranny of conscious thoughts

“If I stay…?” A collateral question


But I knew self-control

was a religion she

did not practice


Just one day, I’ll be home

with a Red Badge of

Courage upon my lapel


One day she’ll know

I am the best bad luck

she’ll ever have


I promise her the

moon and more

But she never knew

she was a Homeward Angel


An American tragedy


I was fighting for

my Country, when

a war was raging

in plain sight


She left me for dead


In her eyes, I was

a destroyer of the

world


I was gambling in

America

My loss was not

of money, but

of love


“Difficult times lie ahead.”

I hear this everyday now

She was my *******

fire, her flames

had been

distinguished


She realized I was

her God

So I promised;

Sometime, somewhere, someday,
I know we will meet again.  -DDF

Come on ! Come on !
Let's go ! . . .
row upon row
do the red poppies grow

Red ! Red !
the petal fed
taken from the lives
of the young and dead

The white bones
bleached of dreams
and forgotten sins ,
everything

Row upon row
of white the markers go
drenched in poppies
the dead in red grow

Bleached bone dreams
no breath
no whispers of "dear"
that death's spear pierced

Their's , no longer
the years , the fears , and tears
where the red poppies grow
row upon row

In disaster and war movies
the protagonist (Queen) and her immediate circle
are protected from anonymous death. They may die (one by
      one or all at once)
but someone at least grieves.
Or the audience is full of glee.

But in Star Wars (for instance)
what about the many hundreds of nameless, faceless soldiers
in body armor and visored helmets, or planetary citizens,
who fall by the dozens or more, like the leaves this rich fall.
      I think
no one thinks

how one of them may have had her first lover the night before
and one may be leaving behind two sons he read to last night
and loved with all his heart.
Neither belief in God nor being a god entertained
can explain or forgive this oversight.

Ah, how sweet
the film in which no actor dies or if they do
it's from their own disease or golden age.
People grieve for the soul that left
and celebrate the soul that flew.

I was in Providence for a conference,
a town I had thought insignificant, not a city to be considered
a city in flight. But that night they lit
one hundred bonfires in the river running up through the streets
      and the face of every girl and woman with her lover
by firelight was beautiful.

Had the city been nuked
by a terrorist or rogue nation I would not have minded dying
      there,
with them, that night. It is possible
to be several million strong
and every homeless man with a singing voice belong.

I’m going to Republican heaven,
Going to meet Republican Jesus
After I pay off my school loans
Whenever my banker pleases
To let me out of the contract
With its usurious interest fees
And I am sure I will get there
When I am down on my knees.

I’ll have my Republican Bible
With its verses edited wisely
To exempt all the white folk
From behaving quite nicely
And making sure welfare
Is only for rich white neighbors
The rest are not allowed in
Our society except as laborers.

I am sure that Republican Jesus
Will welcome me quite warmly
For supporting the death toll
Of our Christian Soldier army.
He will be so delighted that
We vilified ungodly abortions
And how we treated those awful
Poor mothers and their orphans.

He will have to be delighted
That we held back the riches
We gained from our warfare
Ignoring our soldiers in ditches
Or maimed in those battles
We know you wanted us to wage
In the name of Republican Jesus
Out of our holy sense of rage.

Republican Jesus surely will
See how cleverly we diverted
The money to the richest people
Not the soldiers we deserted.
And, how only the people who
Did not need help financially
Got all the extra wealth we had
And we made sure of it annually.

I’m going to Republican heaven,
Going to meet Republican Jesus
And I’m sure greed and bigotry
Will just tickle him to pieces
Because it says in the Bible
The only people who will get in
Are the people that look like me
And vote for all the same men.

I don't talk much cuz,
Nobody hears me,
When nobody hears me,
They don't see me,
Ignored like a dead floating fish,
Nobody can save me,
Fine then I abruptly say to thyself,
***** every soul that I consider alive,
Away to anyone who blows a smile at me,
Excuse my behavior all of sudden...,
No!,
Excuse your behavior that I tolerated since my existence began,
Leave me be I need no help from trouble that caused effect,
Everyone be happy in your place of hell that you danced your way to,
I have no more hands to throw out,
I have no sympathy to deliver,
I lost love when I threw my heart away,
Along with burning my emotions into the atmosphere,
I walked away quietly rebalancing thyself somewhere near this beautiful island,
I will call home,
More than just sand,
More than waving waters at my feet,
Sweeter than cut coconuts juice with a pretty straw,
Calmer than the trees breezed in a restful evening,
Prettier than the morning sunrise til the heavenly sunset,
More rhythmic than dem girls hips sway to a reggae beat,
More deeper than a poetic revolutionary black brotha,
I know what I am,
What I like,
What fits me physically and emotionally,
What makes me smile even through the bad,
Who I love to the endless of time,
What's ok to accept and keep it moving,
I say less now because it's just cheap,
I rather work to earn what's owed to me,
Graciously and humbling to my soul,
I only live for me now,
For my own universe.