The poem, told from the first-person perspective, is an extended reflection by a mother regarding the experience of her son joining the army and leaving for war. As the poem begins, the mother stands in a graveyard, observing that poppies have been placed upon soldiers’ graves in honor of Armistice Sunday, the anniversary of World War I’s conclusion. The mother remembers she had pinned a poppy onto her son’s soldier uniform before he began his service. Standing in their home, the mother removed white cat hairs from her son’s uniform and smoothed down his collar. She attempted to hide the emotions on her face and restrained herself from running her fingers through her son’s gelled hair. She remembered giving her son “Eskimo kisses,” lightly brushing his nose, when he was young. The mother fell silent as she bravely walked with her son to their front door, preparing for him to exit and join the war. The son seemed to leave the house in a single second.
After her son left, the mother went to his bedroom and released a caged songbird. Later, she witnessed a dove flying from a pear tree, and followed the bird to a nearby hill, beyond a church. The mother’s stomach turned as she walked, and she was cold in the winter air because she was not wearing a hat, coat, scarf, or gloves. The mother walked to the top of the hill and traced inscriptions on a war memorial located there, before leaning against it. She watched the dove flying above her in the sky and listened, wishing she could hear her son’s childhood voice in the wind.
