Starry night like no other

Squadron mate, brother to brother

Solemn silence

Roaring rage

Bombing targets spilled on page

Rising moon, light from above

February nights, white as a dove

Cozy hamlets, dumb to danger

Blind to anger and pain

Deaf to screams of the damned still aloft

City boundaries, houses and homes

Marked by flames and flak

Seen by those both in front

And those in back

Some releasing their load, taking on guilt

Others awaiting orders to remove sword from hilt

Silver ribbons cut and peeled

Fragile workings soon revealed

Pieces of a puzzle forever lost

Broken glass covered in frost

Alarms, failures, gears

Men cowering from their fears

Bailout screeching, red sirens, red blood

Flames abound, an orange flood

Bones and bodies aching

Hearts and engines breaking

Metal beasts glide down slower

Follow’d by cloth with precious cargo

Three drifting ever lower

One crumpled, freefalling

Soon, safety on the ground

Will offer eternal rest.

They foolishly say

“Dead men tell no tales”

Yet the soot on the buildings

And the bombs underfoot

And the shadows of yesterday

Say more than they ever could