poem, poetry, Sonnet

Veterans

Veterans

Beneath the poppies they lie, our fallen
protectors, who gave their lives to stop foes
from near and far from taking God-given
rights to life and liberty. In the throes
of battle they never failed to take down
the enemy, ’till snicker-snack, their match
met, one unlucky sword thrust took them down.
Up they got to fight ’till a bullet catch–
then to earth they went, eternal sleep bent.
Their eyes close on this churned up battlefield,
then open on a field of poppies meant
to greet their tired souls. Red flowers reveal
their memory honored by those they saved,
their struggle ends now in the peace they craved.

Prompt courtesy of Magpie Tales

31 thoughts on “Veterans”

  2. Awesome work for the prompt girl! How are you? I have been pretty much offline but things have settled down a bit so enjoying the quiet. So happy to see your link, nice to see you! Hugs!

    Liked by 1 person

    4. I can’t find your website on my list of blogs I follow. I still don’t have the hang of WP all the way.

      I wanted to ask you what happened to Jinshu? I finally stopped following because there were no prompts and I couldn’t get an answer.

      Curious…hugs!

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  7. I wonder if you realize that your sonnet gave a summary of a World War I battle: soldiers show up, the weaker/fated to go one dies, some people feel safer, poppy grows to sort of commemorate the fallen and the end. Cool :). As always Melinda your writing is engaging.

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    1. Thank you. I read up about the connection between poppies and veterans before I wrote it and discovered the WWI connection. I wanted to be true to its roots. I have several veteran ancestors that I hope are reading it with pleasure from heaven. (Assuming they have wifi and laptops up there)

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    2. hehe @ wifi up in heaven. I suppose they have something even better. I remember when I first read about the poppie and WWI, on a research site moons ago and I thought it beautiful. When I was at school we wore the paper ones, the school still do for the whole of November.

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    3. I hope they do have wifi. I love my internet. 😉 My mom always bought the poppies from the veterans but I never understood the connection. I think they ought to teach about this in school because it’s a beautiful thing and there’s a beautiful poem expressing it on the VFW website.

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