Peace Poem

Earthen mounds under stars
and stripes, stars
and crosses, stars
and sky, marked by stone,
marked by year,
marked by poppies.
Poppies, the same flowers that put Dorothy
to rest on her voyage to Oz
keep the silence still,
keep the ground united,
keep the ghosts remembered.
The ghosts still in uniform,
still fighting for “Independence,” “Democracy,” “Truth,”
still answering to presidents long since dead.

Earthen mounds covered
in grass and time,
the greener the grass grows
the further the memories of blood-
stained mud wash from the surface.
The decayed fathers, brothers, husbands left hidden in the ground
return to Earth
under the poppies,
under the stone,
in rows of earthen mounds
under the stars.