Remember Remember the 11th of November

The other night, my aunt convinced me to go to a poetry workshop where I was supposed to write a poem in the form of a letter to a fairy tale character. But there are two things about me one should know: 1) I suck at writing poetry and 2) I can't stay away from the topic of politics. So from the story of Little Red Riding Hood, my thoughts somehow strayed to Remembrance Day- a "holiday" that recently passed by and that always makes anti-war activists like me uncomfortable. Actually, now that I think about it, I guess what the two topics have in common is the image of the colour red, and that's probably exactly how my thoughts arrived here:

Poppy,

 When I look at you

I see blood,

I see violence,

I see a big red lie

pinned to the chests 

of murderers

who tell me

to support the troops 

and [insert more propaganda here].

Poppy, 

When I look at you

I see blood,

I see violence,

I see a big red lie

pinned to the chests

of murderers

who tell me

there is such a thing

as a just war

fought for freedom
and [insert another abstract value here].

Poppy,

When I look at you

I see blood,

I see violence,

I see a big red lie

pinned to the chests 

of murderers

who tell me

to remember

but also
 to forget

the truth.