Memorial Day

I've got a stand of these short-lived flowers in my backyard. About once a week the whole thing is topped with small beautiful blue blooms, but they only last a few days. The petals fall off and it looks like a weed until another batch of flowers emerge. It's like Spring comes once a week.
I couldn't figure out what kind of flower they were, so I asked a friend who told me that they are Blue Flax, Linum Perenne. They remind me on this Memorial Day of that classic poem:

In Flanders Fields
LTC John McCrae, MD

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.