The Air Raid (From Gazette & Herald)

The Air Raid

COLD night draws near.

Darkness and wailing tones

Of sirens, quickening that fear

Which melts the marrow of the bones.

A doom-filled pause,

When all in trembling terror wait

To hear insistent menace moving near

And ever nearer. Powerless because

Others command their fate.

Fragile brick-blasted flesh is torn;

Horror and pity with equal courage borne

In disbelief, that only man can hate

So much his fellow creatures. Still they fly,

Those unseen shapes, with pulsing engine-beat,

To occupy the once-protecting sky.

Earth shakes and gapes beneath their stumbling feet

Who struggle to console, the pain assuage,

Despite their own stark rage.

Tear drops of blood defile a face

Not sleeping, but alone in that dark place

Where no light shines.

And shattered limbs lie motionless in dust

Where once a splendid palace proudly reigned,

A splintered ruin of skeletal spines

And iron shards decaying into rust.

All glory lost and only chaos gained.

Now, after all our years of fitful peace,

Screaming, the savage bombs again descend,

Precision is the aim; cruel death the end.

Pray God that all wars cease.

Updated: 14:58 Wednesday, April 16, 2003