Sunflowers and The Flowers Of Youth
They stood erect and bright:
Rows and rows of sunshine flowers,
Tall and to attention,
An army of sturdy growth,
sA mass of colour and might…
They stood still and slight:
Lines and lines of infantrymen,
Straight and to attention,
A force of loyal duty,
A task to fight for right…
They leaned, dying and dead:
Lines and lines of shrivelled flowers,
Bowed in cruel rejection,
A crop of wiry waste,
A field of skeletal dread…
They lay contorted, dead and dying:
Rows and rows of infantrymen,
Cowed in life’s rejection,
A corps of pitiful sacrifice,
A loss to leave a nation crying…
Pete Ray
September 2018
Returning to the Gard, France, finding fields of dead sunflowers, in contrast to some years back when they were flourishing, earlier in the summer.
I was reminded of World War 1’s ‘flowers of youth’, both allied and enemy…
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