Versamelde gedigte

[p. 433]

Light bombers

They looked on death with no indifferent eye,

Aware of what his real presence meant.

Saw, heard and smelt the tracer passing by,

And knew and feared its vicious, fierce intent;

Felt time on time the trembling of their kite

That proved how close his perilous hand could reach,

And glimpsed, beyond the immensity of night,

A far-off light burning on Anzio beach.

In ordered rank, like seaward-wheeling cranes,

Through cold that iced their air-streams into cloud,

They raced towards Cassino's war-torn wreck:

Dropped on the mark the obliterating load,

Then circling, turned, to foil the searching flak,

Back to the clear serene of starry lanes.