remembrance

 

remembrance

 

Gough and Ned

and on this day

they called it off

we wonder why they started

 

sprig

and will I buttonhole?

 

rosemary – ground cover variety

for

all such dead whom we survive

think ‘are to join’

but that’s not right

 

‘such is life’

whether ever said

is just up to a point

 

I mean that pointy ending

the tightening

or anyway you choose to go

unlikely though

call fate

for want of better

 

‘not wearied’ – that’s a laugh

like saying there are no animal antics

on other worlds we know

 

I’m trying to remember right now

if this is a named device

in the catalogue

rest assured though, I’ll forget

 

I guess it is a kind of mask

for sorrows

you feel need to show

 

nobody meets anyone

because the after isn’t after all

 

your god is not

that goes for the lot

 

today the wings are summer ripe

 

here’s a field of poppies

mowed to size

 

who wouldn’t want theirs meaning?

and tell me – what’s two legs to do?

 

just tell it till it’s true