Summary
In reference to the Clayton W. Cates' poem And Bombers Are Missing.
A Thunderbolt fell on Germany one winter day
Days before, the pilot had words to say
Poetry that prayed for ships lost in forty-four
He wrote and was captured months before Pearl Harbor
A great-uncle I know only from his poetry
Lines that were wrought of wartime verity
Was the world so different when that war was waged?
Herein are my thoughts on that tattered page
A gull's wings billow in a South Pacific breeze
She is kiting over a calm pearl-blue sea
Heading to her favorite mast and rest from flight
Her ship was missing in the morning light
Squadrons of red-eyed birds flew from a rising sun
Radar sweeps that we thought were our own run
Anxious klaxons arose with those vultures in sight
The ships went under in the morning light
A sixty-year old oil-slick tints the harbor
Stay vigilant fore, aft, port, and starboard
To those who bemoan the duplicitous fight
You risk ships and towers to the morning light