Landing by parachute and glider in the early hours of 6th June 1944, airborne soldiers grasped the initiative to ensure the success of the landings on the beaches of Normandy.
An Airman Comes Down
Any other mother’s son –
This bullet force –
This sky-man ;
The chute, unopened
A plummet
An Icarus fall
The failed wing-flight
Of any other mother’s son
This alien force
landing,
Impaled to the ground
As the year’s pass their testament to this event
The slightly queasy feel
of uneasy eyes shift and
Lift to the sky.
See him there, re-entering
No Cannonball !
No Circus act, or jet stream
In bullet speed, crashing and smashing
to the ground
within that matter of war this deathly feat
When some other mother’s son hits the ground.
© Mary T Duggan