Remember Them - A Tribute Poem!

Through ages past we danced our life from seed to journey’s end.

WE shimmied in carpets green and gold and watched through rainbow arches. WE flounced in drifts of blue and white, oft spied beneath some wooded bough. Yet, no other it would seem as wild in dance and blaze of glory. 


Why then that WE, the chosen symbol of death, of grieving, and remembrance?

A rippling breeze, a howling gale, wind-ravaged, wet and ragged, and still we stand on spidered green. 
Yet, the whispering and singing of the grasses, and leaves all hollering from the trees, none of that can temper our vibrancy. 

Why then that WE, the chosen symbol of death, of grieving, and remembrance?


Adrift in canorous water-filled holes, fluttering through bared bones and twisted metal, we've see the lifeless souls depart, from the barbarous sins of wars and wants. Yet, still we remain, in annihilations waste, beacons all aflame.

So perhaps, most blessed then are WE, the immodest among our species, who represent death, grieving, and remembrance. For when our garish scarlet hue stands proud upon lapels, WE, we are the symbol of the fallen. 

For battlefields and oceans deep are a hellish place to die. 

Francine Howarth
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