Poppies - War & Conflict

• "Three days before Armistice Sunday."
• "Before you left, I pinned one onto your lapel."
• "Crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer."
• "I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your nose, play at being Eskimos like we did when you were little."
• "I resisted the impulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair."
• "The world overflowing like a treasure chest."
• "After you'd gone I went into your bedroom, released a song bird from its cage."
• "The dove pulled freely against the sky, an ornamental stitch."
• "I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind."