POEMS OF PEAS/CE

The Poppies and the Peas

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Their silky memories shape and soak our nation’s grieving walls

Red song lines resurrect the lost to love

And love is given up to hope

We clutch the poppy to our breast

And to the creviced walls we press in… and press on

Talisman of a transplanted nation

Whose portal steps are found in blood.

We cover, cover with the red

The bloody truth of our dead

Now flowing in the country’s heart

The pea flower tells

Of dead who lie and cry goes up

First nation’s blood soaks and grieves our soil

Fiery memory lost to shame.

Bravely now with trembling hands

We must pluck the poppy with the pea

Whose battle song line

Must needs be resurrected from lost to love

Uncover, uncover with the red

The bloody truth of our dead

In Australian Fields.

©Hazel Davies June 2015

For our Original Peoples, whose blood cries up from Country

Back to Making Peas/ce

ANZAC Hills

A poem that calls out the rightful memory of the deaths defending Australia while we have little to

ANZAC HILLS

If you think we should not be here,

and dare to take a stand.

We’ve heard the call to remember,

that permeates this land.

But in every town and obelisk,

we’re asked to stay away.

Remembering the forgotten,

is like a crime they say.

To mourn the black fella here,

lost upon these lands.

Through genocide and homicide,

and military plans.

To bring dignity and honour,

in this most sacred space.

Name everything we took from them,

and look them in the face.

And cast aside now wondering if we ever will,

Rent our robes in sorrow upon our Anzac Hills.

We’ll mourn the unknown soldier,

we’ll strike up every band.

We’ll deck our halls with poppies,

fashioned from our very hands.

We’ll teach the young to copy,

the cry ‘Lest We Forget’.

But turn our backs on a history,

We fail to speak of yet.

And cast aside now wondering if we ever will,

Rent our robes in sorrow upon our Anzac Hills.

So bottle up the tears,

You people of the faith.

It seems we are not welcome,

in this most sacred space.

For we must mourn in secret,

our loved ones in the dark.

We call upon our government..

to step up to the mark.

And cast aside the wondering if we ever will,

Rent our robes in sorrow upon our Anzac Hills.

Making Peas/ce after the COLONIAL ERA CONFLICTS

The Poppy and the Pea Poem

by Hazel Davies

The Poppies and the Peas

ANZAC Hills

A poem that calls out the rightful memory of the deaths defending Australia while we have little to

We Remember Aborginal War Deaths on Country

The poppy and the pea poem