Making Poppies with Pa

 

I traced the outline:

5 perfect petals

on the shiny red metal sheet.

 

Pa used the tin snips

snip, snip, snip

to carefully cut around the shape.

 

Together we hammered the petals up

one at a time.

“It looks like a leaky cup!” I laughed.

 

Then I sprayed

one puff of black

into the flower’s centre.

 

Pa attached the wire stem

and handed it to me

like it was a long-stemmed rose.

 

But when I carried our poppy outside

and proudly placed it in the new-turned dirt

Pa began to cry.

 

He knelt down so I could hug him tight

then whispered through his tears,

“I hope you never know what war really means.”

Kristin Martin
kristin@kristinmartin.net