POPPIES

• "Three days before Armistice Sunday" - Day of Remembrance
• "Before you left, I pinned one onto your lapel" - direct address to her son
• "spasms / bandaged / graze" - semantic field of injury and pain
• "steeled the softening of my face"
• "I resisted the impulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair" - biblical imagery to Jesus's crown of thorns which symbolises sacrifice
• "A split second and you were away, intoxicated" - war propaganda glorified fighting to entice soldiers in
• "released a song bird from its cage" - metaphor for the freedom her son now has, he has flown the nest
• "Later a single dove flew from the pear tree" - 'dove' connotes peace, innocence and purity
• "I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind"