Dawn in the Poppy Field.

I would not want you anyway but this – a pink dawn
Rising across the fields –your footprints small in the
Dew on the grass – the first faint stirrings of a fractured
Present – leading outwards to a future where I cannot
Follow, but sink in my own distress.

Child of my heart – would that I could keep you here
Forever. This moment- this place in time. Where we have
No ties to bind us – no lover, nor duty to hold us here – free
And pure, the love spills over onto the blades of wheat
Where the poppies bloom in abundance.

Stay a moment. We have so short a time to express all that
We will feel forever – the burdens of loving lap at our feet
Stir up memories better forgotten – innocence dies as the sun
Rises. Please don’t turn away now – instead run and twirl as
You did and then I caught you. Safely.

Safely in my arms forever. So that you never grew old when
The sky erupted and dawn became a bloody fingerprint, a
Stress on the semi-colons that rang in my ears – a symphony
Of ragged sound- always and forever falling through the dawn
A smudge of dawn in the poppy field.