The Old War Poem by Hyam Plutzik

No one cared for the iron sparrow
That fell from the sky that quiet day
With no bird's voice, a mad beast's bellow.

Sparrow, your wing was a broken scar
As you blundered into the mother-barley.
Sparrow, how many men did you bear?

'Ten good men, pilot and gunner -
Trapped in the whirlpool, held by no hands,
Twisting from truth with curse and prayer.

'Ten good men I bore in my belly -
Not as the mother-barley bears.
Ten good men I returned to her there.'

Thunder rolling over the barley!
Fire swarming high and higher!

Home again to the barley-mother -
Ten good sons, pilot and gunner,
Radioman and bombardier.