Raf Carrot Piercing Eyes: Night Trauma Recurring Nightmare Poem by Terence George Craddock

raw nerves flight check
fighter pilot bomber pilot
ate night vision carrots

keen youth
eyes piercing
death dicing

engine darkness
ignition rumbles
last flight checks

ice nerves
cold sweat
carrot eyes


an airfield
thundering
take off

at night
dawn hoping
to return

fighters
stretching
claws

bombers
overloaded
pregnant


with stack deadly
death silent waiting
bombs in belly

in English RAF darkness
different ace squadrons
preparing their takeoff

flying through night sky cloud soup is safer...
hit returning crashing into channel soup is safer...
nursing shot up bomber home crash landing is safer...


guns red roar raging
bombers fighters engaging
spectral tracer evading

alone wing fighter cover range denied
during last tense leg to mission targets
during straight dead maze bomb runs

who lives who dies in death skies...
flaming coffins hit torn burn falling...
spinning toward ground impacts dying dying dying...


postscript: death mist eerie days later
night script drama begins replay buzzing
minus ghost formation missing friends crews

in home English RAF darkness
different swarm ace squadrons
preparing wing prayer takeoffs...


Copyright © Terence George Craddock