FLASH IN THE PAN, Some images never fade . . . Options

[Thoth]

. . .

In wartime, lights in the night usually signify something bad is about to happen – somewhere!

Breaking the stillness; a bump in the night!
Is that the start of an Eighty-one’s flight?
Payload of chaos to no one knows where
till H.E. and shrapnel light up the air.

Bursting in splendour, bright star in the sky,
Icarus riding a thousand foot high.
Just for a minute she dazzles the eyes
then swinging in circles, gradually dies.

Lazy green fire-flies, starting out slow
floating through darkness – all in a row.
Lazy green fire-flies rapidly change
to green killer-hornets streaking up-range.

Flickers of lightning! (A storm's overdue?)
Katyusha's big daughter, the one-twenty-two
shrieks overhead like a flaming banshee;
the zone near her grounding you’d rather not be.

Lurking in shadow, as patient as Jobe,
mine waits a victim to press on its probe,
renting the soul with a blast out of hell;
a few have survived their story to tell.

Of battle aurora commanding the night,
nothing’s as heinous as one out of sight.
Tiny hot flash of a rifle well aimed
could modestly signal “Your life has been claimed!”



Notes:
“Eighty-one” – 81mm NATO calibre Medium mortar. The Russian version had an 82mm bore.
“Icarus” – Hand launched parachute flare, also known as “thousand foot flare”.
“Katyusha” – Russian nickname of the older 82mm artillery rocket also known as “Stalin’s Organ” .
It was superseded by the powerful 122mm projectile with a range of up to 30 km.
Other references are to; machine gun tracer fire, mines and booby-traps.

Reason for edit: added IBPC winner image

[Thoth]

Hi Larry, Snow and Syl,

Thank you for popping in and commenting.


Yes, it's now been over 35 years since the bush war. (and Vietnam too) and our generation is rapidly passing on. Sadly, there is always a war raging somewhere

I have a lot of war poetry and stories but very little ever posted/published (or even shared with friends and family for that matter.) Partly due to the personal nature of the experiences and also because its a subject many find distasteful or hold strong opinions on. Unpleasant as it is, war is a reality that that cannot be swept under the table or will go away by ignoring it. Many of history's greatest bards sharpened their first pencils on the battle field.

This piece is fairly innocuous, a battle can be quite entertaining to watch until it gets close and personal. 99.9 % of a soldier's time is spent patrolling, waiting or observing so during that time much is seen and remembered that may actually have no bearing on the battle or the war.

Weapons technology may evolve with time but the duty of the infantry soldier has not really changed throughout history. Someone has to actually go there, do the dirty work and clean up the mess.


Cheers,

Wal