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I turn the corner and my heart sinks.
Where once there was life there is devastation.
Poppies grew here;
Their scarlet blooms bobbing in the sun.
Snapdragons of deepest carmine;
Their jaws held tight until parted by a bee.
Daisies and mallows, deadnettles and other unknown flowers,
Vied with each other, competing for their place in the sun.
While around them wild grasses nodded in the summer breeze.
An oasis of beauty in a concrete and tarmac desert.
Where once grew the acid yellow of escaped oil-seed,
There lies now the result of another rape.
The cutters have come!
Like a swarm of locust they descended upon the grassy bank.
Now gone, in their wake they leave straw-coloured stubble.
Littered with stalks that once held aloft proud flowers,
And now lay wilting like the bodies of soldiers fallen in battle.
One lone poppy stands witness to the massacre,
How it survived matters not, that it remains is celebration enough.
Its glory a reminder of yesterday; a flag of hope for tomorrow.
With time Nature will heal.
The grass will grow; flowers will bloom.
From this wasteland beauty will be reborn.
© Kev the Cosmic Fool 2004
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