Keith Chandler
An Airman Returns
Up in the blue
a vapour-trail fattens to nothingness.
Corn pouring over the bunkers
presents limp bayonets.
From the perimeter fence
hang flags of lambswool.
Stonecrop is eating the concrete apron.
The runways are flared now with willowherb.
Hangers dim with strawdust serve as barns.
Pigs mess in the nissen huts.
Swallows chase and chase
and will not answer to the control tower.
A dandelion clock
its own windsock
holds back airborne divisions for the big drop.
Sign-posts have long been painted in:
now you may take which way you choose.
Each turn in the lane brings ambuscades of scent,
each dip in the hedge a richer prospect —
field crops becoming uniformly tan
shot through with poppy, scabious, vetch.
Down by the river a grey heron
stalks its own shadow among the reeds.
The village, drowned in chestnut shade,
looks deserted, but only for lunch.
Sentry lying dead on the steps of the pub
lifts a tail-stump: you may pass.
Among the low cool talk at the bar
no one turns his head
and there is nothing on the news.
Page(s) 33
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