These are a few poems
I want to share. Fragile retrospectives, most of them, plucked from the rushing torrent of time. Some are well-known
- timeless standards, others will be unfamiliar to the casual reader:
. . . this first poem I searched for high and low, with
spotty recollection. I wasn't even sure where I heard the one-and-only rendition. (Needless to say, the picture of the sleek Vickers-Supermarine 'Spitfire'** is appropriate to this
first poem):
FOR JOHNNY by John Pudney
Do not despair
For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound
As
Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears
For him in after years.
Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And
see his children fed.
<------------------------->
** For anyone interested, this example is a Mark IA of 19 Squadron,
the first unit to re-equip with the type towards the end of 1938. At the time the 'Spitfire' was the fastest single-engined fighter in squadron service anywhere in the world, a record
that remained unbroken until early 1941 with the service debut of the Bf109F, followed almost immediately by the equally
speedy early MiGs and the Focke-Wulf 190).
