The countryside had once been green,

No tree or hedge can now be seen,

Came the war,

The cannons’ roar,

The fields reduced to mud and blood,

The deep cold craters fill and flood,

And suddenly, a miracle:

Red poppies grew as though to say

We will find peace again one day.

Teacher’s note: By the time the First World War ended, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918, a miracle had occurred.  In the devastated fields of Flanders, the scene of horrific carnage, red poppies bloomed again.  That is why the red poppy is the symbol of Remembrance Day.

Photo from Pexels by Elina Sazonova