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goldenrod
08-16-2008, 03:03 PM
Some Remembered Sounds of War!


The clatter..."Click!" "Click!" "Click!"
Of a wooden stick against iron railings
as I furiously pedaled my tricycle,
at age three,
to get to my aunt's flat to complain that my mother had not fed me lunch
and I was hungry.

Downing a second meal for that lie!

The slow "Thwack!"-"Thwack!"-"Thwack"
On my behind when my mother learned about it,
and meted out, what was then,
suitable punishment!

The urgent two note wavering pulse of the air-raid siren.
Denoting yet another unleashing of explosives on London.

The unmistakable stutter-like moan of the "doodle-bug" and then,
its even more ominous silence!

The sharp "Crack" of anti-aircraft fire,
followed by the soft tinkle of a fine patter of shrapnel.

I.T.M.A...ENSA concerts...Lord Haw Haw...A short wave broadcast of a Luftwaffe party, with music, from Hamburg!

The explosive energy of the V2...unwelcomed introduction to the space-age!

The long, longed for, clear, piercing wail of the final all-clear...


goldenrod.

PrinceMyshkin
08-16-2008, 04:10 PM
Extraordinarily vivid recreation of that experience! Reminds me somewhat of a film shot from a kid's point of view of WWII, in London. To him, unlike your protagonist, it was almost a thrilling time, the best possible spectacle ever.

qimissung
08-18-2008, 08:20 PM
Are you thinking of "Hope and Glory"? A very good film. And this is a good poem, goldenrod-I like the emphasis on remembering something solely through sound (or smell or touch) and it all comes rushing back. But I hope me and mine never have to experience this.