Socialist Sonnet No. 121: Remember (2023)

From the Socialism or Your Money Back blog

Remember, remember the eleventh

Of November, when gunfire, shelling

And shot paused for a moment, a telling

Silence. Then gather around the plinth

On which the cenotaph stands, narcotic

Poppies commemorate and mask the blood,

While in their Sunday best the great and good

Make their last post stand before the quick

March past and away from the remaining dead,

Still behind their national flags. No advance,

As around the world echoes of ordnance

Drown out every word of peace ever said.

If, amidst shell-wracked ruins, all hope lies,

Bleeding poppy red, humanity dies.

                              D. A.