Mark Hastings

I wore my poppy with pride today,
I wore my poppy with honour, with reverence,
with a full, but a heavy, heart,
as I thought about the cost our world of heroes has had to pay.

I walked in silence,
and I stood in stillness,
in the shadow of the cenotaph to the lost and to the fallen-
I looked above to the monument, and to the sky,
and I wished that I were a poet who could express
what I was thinking, and what I was feeling, at that moment
to all and to everyone.

I wear my poppy today, because I am thankful to be alive;
I wear my poppy today, because I cannot, and can never, forget
my brother, my sister, my own,
who believed, fought, sacrificed, and died, for me-
whose names should be revered and remembered for all time,
and always survive.

I walk in silence,
and I stand in tears,
casting a shadow in the midday sun on the monument to humanity, Earth,
as I, we, lower our eyes, head, and heart, as-one in peace,
and in hope that Earth will one day live as a world war-free;
standing united with the faces, and the fate,
of the world we made, and the world to come,
each of us wearing a token of our gratitude-
me, I am wearing my poppy.