Sunsets field

Slowly on the sunset’s field

Dark blood stains seep

Staining brown ground red

As pain attends the final moments

Of the dying’s moans and screams

Sometimes at dusk it seems as though

This driven pain

Causes tears to spring from my eyes

Just as red poppie blooms burst free

With the early rush of spring

And although I never knew

The touch of you

And even though

My mother rarely spoke of it

Your absence haunted us all

At dusk I feel the silence

Sometimes as blessing

Sometimes as burden

Longing for the soldier I never met

Who owns a piece of my heart

Echoes within echoes

Resound

As I find a way to hold it all

I am the young child

Longing

And the grown woman

Waiting

Both are here

Along with my ancestors

Whispering in the wings

‘We only wish for you to make a home’

For all these feelings never known

Yes

And please

I do

Long

To move on

For these tears must now leave

A place were new life can grow

From the petals of this dying rose

Which must be shed

Along with this

Heavy burden

Of ancestral suffering