Remembrance Day in Yuma

No poppies to be
found here except those we brought.
Memories of war.

~carliewired

It's Remembrance Day back home in Canada and Veterans' Day here in the USA. Our American friends do not include a poppy in their ceremonies or displays. It falls to the Canadians to bring their own. This one was bought at the Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia last year. (Canadian National Historic Site)

The red poppy has special significance for Canadians as its use as a symbol for soldiers who died in conflict came from the poem "In Flanders Fields".

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The author, Lt. Col. John McCrae, was a Canadian soldier and physician when he wrote these lines in 1915. It was published in London's 'Punch' in December of that year. The wearing of poppies in the days before Remembrance Day quickly found a following in the nations of the British Empire. The Royal Canadian Legion continues to oversee the sales of poppies each year, receiving some $14 million to support veterans and their families.