HEIGHTS OF VERDUN
Mrs. Johanna
I still hear your grief
About your dead son
At the heights of Verdun
A hundred years ago
He wrote you words he didn’t know
He had to fall in the morning
Far too soon
He was just twenty-two
Madame Marie
I still see your trembling shoulders
You had to suffer all alone
Because your lover left his home
He was buried unknown
At the heights of Verdun
You never read his words
The bombshells erased every letter
My dear Antoine
You’re still standing guard
Waiting for your father to return
Every morning, every night
You never needed a hero
Just a father’s guiding heart
Henri et Antoine
Father and son
Until the heights of Verdun
Copyright © 2023 by Jonathan Binhack
SUNFLOWERS
From one who is young
To one who is cold
Is it war that we need?
I see them falling
I hear your lies
And I stand with the dreams that die
And the sunflowers bloom
You can’t fight the spring
A sunflower blooms on every tomb
The same kind of treason
The same shadow-play
That we saw in 1939
A lifetime ago
When the faces where grey
Seems not so far away
The tanks will corrode
Blue birds will sing
A sunflower blooms on every tomb
I send you my song
In yellow and blue
In white blue and red
I send it too
May be your colors
No colors of death
And remember that you’re only passing through
Your pipe dream is old
And your legacy thin
A sunflower blooms on every tomb
Copyright © 2023 by Jonathan Binhack