The Great Wounded Bird

by David Westheimer

Where engines were,
Two gaping holes
Smirk at us from the maimed wing.
Hydraulics shot away.
Wheels down.
Losing altitude.
Wounded bomber,
Desert pink
In a blue sky.
Below a placid sea waits
Indifferently.
Skidding like a thrown stone,
Nose first
Wheels dragging
Along the surface
Catching the swell.
Rending crash.
Seawater surging
Onto the flight deck,
Driving all back
Before it.
A scramble
Out the escape hatch.
A sudden silence.
Seven of ten floundering
In the sea, leaving three
Who never again will know sunlight.
Rowboats from the rocky shore,
Where women and children watch
Agape.
Small men with small rifles,
Smelling of sweat and garlic,
Pull us, gasping,
From the wet.
Looking into the dead eyes
Of netted anchovies.
I wondered then
And still do,
Were we captured
Or rescued?

-- DW
© 2000 David Westheimer
From his book, The Great Wounded Bird and Other Poems, copyright 2000 by David Westheimer, and published by the Texas Review Press. Reprinted here with author's permission.

David Westheimer is the author of 15 novels, including "Von Ryan's Express" (made into the classic movie starring Frank Sinatra), "My Sweet Charlie," and "Lighter than a Feather." He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Dody, in the same apartment into which they moved from their native Houston 39 years ago. He retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve as a lieutenant colonel and has the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal.