Response to In Flanders Fields by Dirk Lemmens by Mary McCarthy

In Flanders Fields by Dirk Lemmens, 1959.

Response to In Flanders Fields by Dirk Lemmens

The world does not weep
it is only rain falling
the world does not bleed
it is only a field of red poppies
grown thick on wounded earth
closed over the bones of young men

Bones here so long
they are clean
all the squalor
of torn flesh
dissolved
absorbed
by organisms of decay
and transmuted
into new earth

Under the rain and the living red
the white bones rest
absolved of all dissension
empty and content
to remember nothing

Mary McCarthy

This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge

Mary McCarthy has always been a writer, but spent most of her working life as a Registered Nurse. She has had many publications in journals, including Earth's Daughters, Caketrain, and The Evening Street Review, among others. She has only recently discovered the vibrant poetry communities on the internet, where there is so much to explore and enjoy.