Scattered Like Daffodils

Daffodils in the Wind

Vera was sitting in the den,
and when she heard the clock strike ten;
she saw that portrait on the wall;
Her lost love Roger's seneschal.
Then she looked back, inside her mind,
for that dusty smell, to find-
that army coat, of wool was warm,
just like that faded flag and, worn,
folded in a triangle
inside a bureau drawer.

It was the price they paid for war.
For freedom isn’t free,
It costs a hundred thousand lives,
They should just let it be.
Someone with a global vision
Years from now may see
The whole world shared,
And happy, free:
No one homeless, no divisions—
If only this mad world would listen.
And so her husband went to war,
That folded flag left by the door,
And with it with was a note,
The last lines that he ever wrote:

I should’ve brought my coat,
The one you always wore.
I left it on the coat rack by the door.
They gave me a replacement,
But it doesn’t—hell,
I guess I shouldn’t say this,
But I still miss your smell—
If you see me in your dreams,
I’m seeing you as well.

Your scent was with me when I left,
And every time I took a breath,
I saw you laughing in the bed.
And if that’s all I have, I guess,
I could be better off.
I love you very much, my Dawn,
I’ll see you when I get home.

It was simple in its prose,
and when she read it there she broke
into pieces like a glass;
She lay there as a shattered mirror,
Memories flitted past;
She heard him laugh,
She saw him smile,
At a theme park, on a ride,
that spark of light, that once burned bright,
Inside her dimmed and died.

Wars are not always of land,
Or conquest, genocide,
Sometimes the worst of battles,
Takes place in the mind.
You want to get a cup of tea,
Or have a glass of wine—
You want to live, you want to love,
But sometimes cannot find—
A way to work the loose ends out,
Thus peek and pine away—
Until the battle becomes time,
And it strikes you down by day.
Some hope, some wish, some kill themselves,
Some just to get away,
And they all sing the same old song,
It shouldn’t be this way.

Diane became a shrieking wreck,
Crying wrapped up in that jacket,
Popping pills and drinking vodka
Playing with a loaded shotgun—
But when she slept she saw him young,
When they loved each other dumb
The shining brightness of her smile,
Had once been so vibrant while—
She waited for the news.

Every day before the note,
She woke up and washed his coat,
Lit a candle and she prayed.
Thinking back of all the times,
They rolled around and played
When they were young under the sun
When the future waited warm
They wrestled on the trampoline,
And pinched each others arms.
Of his embrace, and that old coat,
Still in their old room brushed.

That future dreamed of them had flown,
As daffodils in the wind are blown—
Once there for the taking,
Once right there in your hand—
Until the specter Death arose,
And sent you down another path,
Just another unknown road.
You can resist, you can persist,
But you know you have to go.

That old coat was in his room
She washed it every day.
And tried to see the good, their past,
Not Roger in a grave.
Between them all the best they had,
When together holdings hands,
Such a beautiful life to come;
They always loved each other dumb,
she talks to him at night.
Sometimes if she’s drunk enough,
She hears him say goodnight.

Soft are the petals when they fall,
And beauty too grows old.
It’s going to be all better,
In the next world we are told.
We are daffodils in the wind;
and if that story’s true,
I’ll see you then, my Roger, you,
If Heaven lets you in,
I’ll kiss you ‘till your face turns pink
If and when we meet again.