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Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Redux

by Pam Green , © 2018

Where have all the flowers gone ? Young girls picked them, every one.

Isn't that an ecological crime ? That will totally unbalance the ecosystem of the meadow.

So how about "young girls picked them, some of them; global warming killed the rest. When will we ever learn ?"
(or maybe "housing tracts paved over them", in which case "where have all those houses gone ?" "wildfires burnt them , ev'ry one. when will we ever learn?")

Where have all the young girls gone? Gone to to young men , every one.

This didn't mean that they were all transgender and transitioned to male. It meant they became girlfriends, consorts, wives of young me. But surely some of them were gay and realized it in time. Surely some determinely remained single. And, yeah, a few might have been transgender.

"Gone to young men, some of them. But some were lesbians and some stayed single blissfully."

"Where have all the young men gone ? Gone for soldiers every one."

Surely some were 4F, some were Consientious Objectors (including Amish and Quaker). and some went to Canada.

"Gone to soliders some of them. Some went to Canada, and are alive today."

"Where have all the solidiers gone ? Gone to graveyards every one."

There's never been a war in which no soldier survived, though there have been battles in which none survived (remember the Alamo ?) In modern battle there are far more who are seriously wounded than who are killed outright.

"Gone to graveyards some of them, most to V A hospitals, some living homelessly."

"Where have all the graveyards gone ? Gone to flowers every one."

Mostly grass and periodically cut flowers. Some have become parking lots or housing tracts. But most are probably still graveyards. Only "in Flanders field the poppies grow, between the crosses row on row."

"Still graveyards, growing vast. When will we ever learn ?"

And it doesn't seem likely that we will learn any of this any time soon.