Wear Your Poppy With Pride – Written November 2015 (Aged 40)

Wear Your Poppy With Pride

wear your poppy with pride
but have we really remembered –
those that died?
or has it all become jingoistic
and a symbol of so called pride
wear your poppy they say
but i know it has become politicised
true meaning has fallen away
this is not about national identity –
about being, ‘english’,
did people get cut down in flanders field
for a racist non inclusive world
to flourish without any peace to yield
glorifying the wars misses the point
leaders laying wreaths,
still sending the, ‘kids’, off to war
what for?
because power and political will –
always has to push for more
sharing your thoughts of big red poppies
and how they must be worn on every lapel
yet we still send the, ‘kids’, off to fight
and leave them to return to a personal hell
so have we really remembered
or is all this just misplaced glorification
misplaced ugly jingoism
the horrific far right politicisation




James Garratt – November 2015


More poems at
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/


More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/


More poems from 2015 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2015/