Although this picture was taken in August, not November, I felt reminded of the symbolism of poppies as a flower of remembrance of the fallen in war.
Now, I don’t object to the use of paper or plastic flowers as a badge, or for similar purposes, but somehow, real flowers for a display (or in a picture for contemplation) just seem right, somehow.
The loss of life was real. The emotions were (and are) real. Our respect for the fallen should be real. This unpretentious scene said it all, for me.
The eleventh day of the eleventh month of the two thousand and eleventh year, at eleven o’clock in the morning. The ninety-third anniversary of the armistice at the end of World War One. Once again, an anniversary acknowledged in a simple but moving and dignified way in the centre of Derby. The well-known verse of Binyon’s poem ‘For The Fallen’ was quoted aloud. (They shall grow not old…)
One man and one woman from the services honour the fallen…
…as the bugle sounds, and we remember the cost of our freedom.
