It's all there on cine film -
a wished for window of fair weather
in June, one small opening
a thousand ships launched
an armada bound for Armageddon;
slap of waves on steel, engine roar above
fighters, bombers, bombardment
big guns, ship to shore.
And men, praying, joking, smoking
seasick in the rust-bucket craft
that would jettison body and soul
onto Normandy's shores.
And then they're there!
I'm haunted by a face
frozen in a newsreel shot
a sergeant turning once
orders given, the flat-nosed bow drops
a barrage begins.
Parachutists plunge silently
into carnage. infantry paddle, wade
belly flop the sands in a slaughter
of shells or drown in the bows.
We've watched it on the movies
sanitised, safe, with sound effects
seen the decimation in those sad acres
the stills, the raw, war footage:
10,000 wrecked on those defences
so too those casualties in its defence
It’s Open Link Night at dVerse with Lisa’s mini prompt choice: ‘Show me the Movies’ – title is a quote from “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and the poem memorializes the D-Day landings of 80 years ago today, with most American, British, and Canadian survivors, now deceased.
PoetryPix 