For all Mothers who stand at school gates and stare
At my children with poppies showing they care.
“Why aren’t yours?” I ask, knowing the reply.
“What’s the point?” they say, rolling eyes to the sky.
I try to explain, but it falls on deaf ears,
“Why should we, after this many years?”
I say, “Close your eyes and imagine this:
It’s 2030 and something’s amiss.
The world has changed and hatred runs high,
The country’s at war, our planes in the sky.
An envelope drops on the mat one morning
The call for soldiers once more is dawning.
Your children go and answer the call,
To serve, to fight and stand up tall.
You may get letters, emails, but what if they stop?
What if one comes with death at the top?
What if your child in some foreign field
Gets shot for refusing to give in and yield.
They lie in the mud and the blood and the rain,
Thinking of you who they won’t see again.
Should we forget them and let them die in vain.
Or should we remember though it causes us pain.
Would your child’s biggest sacrifice go
Forgotten by those who really should know?”
“STOP!” they shout, “I promise I will
Get poppies for Peter and Sally and Bill!”
Tomorrow they come with their poppies on coats
They know about men in the air, land and boats.
They come to me and ask what to do about others
I say, “Remind them that all soldiers have mothers.”