Our daughter in law shared a book of cold war poetry - mostly blank verse - to us, and Simon reckoned he could do better. I think he did.
Klaxon, a pantoum
The howling banshee wail, like living knives
It stabs the silence, prompting frozen still
Intruding terror on the peaceful lives
It is the klaxon, warning of a kill
It stabs the silence, prompting frozen still
Unnatural calm with panic burning deep
It is the klaxon, warning of a kill
The bombs are launched, to bring eternal sleep.
Unnatural calm, with panic burning deep
No time for last goodbyes, with minutes four
The bombs are launched, to bring eternal sleep
Then stumbling runs for home, for evermore.
No time for last goodbyes, with minutes four:
The world moves slow, moves fast, comes to a halt;
The stumbling runs for home, for evermore... .
..Thank God! T’was just a circuit’s fault.
The world moves slow, moves fast, comes to a halt
One day, we’ll live, and laugh, forget the pain:
Thank God, t’was just a circuit’s fault...
But watch the klaxon, lest it goes again.
Ferret driver’s beloved brew [couched as a Sapphic ode]
On exercise, and battened down
Where home and family seem so far
At least we’ve tea to sorrows drown
In armoured car
No shower, no shag, no booze, and, too
Must mind our elbows, room we’ve not:
But what we have is our great brew
– Tea, piping hot
We know that it’s another drill,
Preparedness to act, to fire our shot:
But still, the frisson of fear’s thrill...
In case it’s not.
At last, we get the call we want, ‘stand down,’
Uncrack the hatch, and suddenly feel free!
Now, what we need is hot, and wet, and brown
– A cup of tea!
No Duff Message
“This is no duff message,” words that chill
“This is no duff message – THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Your last meal rises in the throat with bile
Yet settles heavily, in reaction vile
This is no duff message: frozen shock
Then moving to our tasks, with feelings blocked:
Numbly performing in our well-trained tasks
How do others feel? Nobody ever asks.
I catch the sergeant’s eye; his face is grim
Two kids, another on the way, for him.
What kind of world will for them remain?
If there is a world... he blinks, and frowns again
This is no duff message. Time seems slow;
Or, maybe, it speeds up; I do not know.
And then the message, like a dream so calm:
“Stand down! Stand down!” it was a false alarm.
The stupid jokes we use to break the jinx;
“A sparrow farted in Warsaw, near the message links.”
“Some Russki dropped a fag-end on the ‘all clear,’;
He shorted it with Vodka, it shorts worse than beer.”
We laugh and horseplay till the sergeant shouts,
Just a short warning, he knows what’s about.
To die another day, fates postpone the dread
And so, we soon forget, go to the mess instead.
there's a few more, I think these represent the spirit of carrying on carrying on, moments of terror, and the slightly forced humour to offset it
