The Sowing

Upon the wind sheltered hillside, the sharp tang of metal and the sting of salt air lay over a field of blood-red poppies, no Flanders Field. At years fall, fields of rape roll like waves, in the harshness of winter-sleet, stray boulders bow, like the backs of mothers, and daughters sowing. Their nails torn, ragged, and bleeding. They bleed by the moon, and son, upon the fields. No white crosses mark their passing. For hundreds of years, and crops of rape, barley and wheat, small hands, soft hands, and soft thighs bleed. They bleed daughters, and sons. They birth the fields by consent or rape and in the fields unadorned by silver stars or purple hearts, they writhe. Today, as May's sun wakes the blood blasted pasture, each precious drop blooms, a heroines soul acknowledgement, the poppies yield.