Plastic Poppies
They’re closing the downtown
Legion soon, taxes are too high,
what with gentrification and
only a few of the regulars are vets.
The younger associates, whose
parents or grandparents served,
can drive to the new place out
on the Watson Parkway.
But most of the old ones don’t drive
anymore and it’s a long bus ride.
Not that it matters, the associates
are just there for cheap beer and
don’t want to hear rambling stories
from senile old vets and anyway.
it’s now one hundred years since
the “war to end all wars” ended.
Christ, even Wicki notes that
the phrase “originally idealistic
is now used sardonically.”
Yet I’m glad to give my toonie
to the shivering cadets
outside the Farmer’s market
and double pin the plastic poppy
to my coat, hoping that it will
last till November Eleven.
To show for a brief while that
I remember.
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