OUT OVER THE FIELDS

Out over the fields a pair of crows circle and dive amongst the hedgerows and green grass.

A watery sun casts its watery face through the spring clouds as the birds disappear from view.

Eighty years ago it was a similar story as two manmade hawks of the air battle to the death; the fields aren’t green but a shell-holed hell with muddy trenches filled with wretched...

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FACE A GUN

How many soldiers were court-martialled,

shot dead, coz of an error of judgement?

“You Private! Take that forty litres of water to A Platoon.”

Fog of war and shell shock.

No water and a bullet in the head.

Of 317 British soldiers in our war to end all wars,

were any of them like the above?

Executed for cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Running scared or...

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FALLEN WARRIOR

Snapping wire whirling and curling in the airflow,

shot loose by enemy bullets. More punching holes

in varnished wooden wing struts, splintering

and shredding the very wood.

Thud, thud, thud as steel rain peppers

tight fabric fuselage, tearing

great holes and destroying the structure.

Big dragonfly wing, wing ribs visible

in the mor...

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