Lullaby for father

Watch your daughter's children play
Thirty years ago today
Memories of your last young summer
Never seemed so far away
Smiling at the gathering storm
In the khaki uniform
When you marched along the high street
Did you listen to your heart beat?
Did you find what you were looking for
In the somewhere over there
Was the answer found on the battleground
Was the question really fair
Tell me are the crosses that stand
Planted by a gardener's hand
Tended only by the weather
Somewhere in the no man's land
And does my love of life betray
His immortal memory
Poppies on a dusty high street
Echoes of the lasting heart beat