Night Raid

A billion stars pinned high the night's vast tent; The windless sea lay mirror-like beneath; From West to East the sullen coast line bent, Deformed and black, baring its rocky teeth.

Halfway between the ocean and the sky The planes came droning in, the crooked cross Emblazoned on their tails, their engines' cry An ever-loudening snarl of hate and force.

In shadowed silence, breathless, lay the town; On all the crowded ships that filled the bay Sharp eyes turned upward, eager faces frowned; The gleaming barrels swung to track their prey.

Staccato barked the guns. The tracer streams Lanced upward flaming bright. The tropic dark Split wide with sound. The searchlights' groping beams Stabbed skyward, found, and grimly held their mark.

So sharp and clear the thoughts men thought that night, While half a million tracers ripped the sky, That ever after, down the years of light And peace and hope, those thoughts stood by.

Those thoughts which said (as German bombs screamed down And cannon slammed their death streams at the foe) "This flaming night stops here! That cleanscrubbed town Forever shall be spared this night's stark show!

"Those streets, those yards, from which her lovely face Looks upward, unafraid, serene: that home, Set in green hills, where playing children race, In those blue skies shall terror never roam!"

To all the countless places where men live And love, in bitter winter winds or deep In peacetime's throbbing spring, tonight we give In fire and noise and death this pledge to keep.

-Christian Science Monitor.