107. Old Memories Rekindled
Old Memories Rekindled
After many years the memories grow dim but now
I’m hearing the wailing sirens of my childhood again.
Staccato barks of ack-ack1 guns growling at the sky,
useless lumps of metal falling aimlessly back to Earth.
Wasted shells, desecrating glorious gardens as they miss their targets.
Flocks of malevolent black birds, crosses on their wings, seeking victims.
Later, the drone of brutal buzz bombs2, suddenly silent, dropping from the sky,
their high explosives aimlessly tearing buildings, bodies, even babies apart.
Today’s brave warriors of my Ukrainian grandfather’s world, face extinction
tugging my mind back to the worst days of the blitz, endless air raids
against a blissful backdrop of perfect English summer blossoms.
Two toy-like fighters wheeling and diving around an infinite stage,
in a gross parody of ballet in the sky, hurling bullets at each other,
new and deadly knights of the modern age jousting at fantastic speeds
with a quick step to heaven – or below, for the loser, glory for the winner.
Thousand bomber raids blotting out the sun on their merciless way
to deluge destruction on a wounded but still sneering, snarling enemy,
both sides wearied to the bone, crying for a final end to conflict.
Peace, at the price of a generation of young men and random civilians.
Sceptics shrug, “It comes in cycles” they moan. “Just wait and see!”
A rash of little wars reminding us of our basest bestial instincts.
Now another fantastical madman lifts a corner of the quilt of peace
allowing his ferocity to threaten and confuse our weary planet
with the prospect of a global apocalypse, if some fool missteps
and starts a chain reaction, bringing our once green and pleasant lands
to a grim desert of destruction.
Can heroic actions of a nation, ruled by an incredibly brave comedian
somehow show the world they are just fighting a paper tiger
who has bluffed and bullied his way for far too long
so that even his own people begin to mutter, “enough!”
His dangerous games recall all my memories of childhood’s fears.
Can the cycle of humanity’s eternal bloodlust ever be broken?
Surely there must be better games to play!
1. ack-ack: slang name for antiaircraft weapons during WWII.
2. buzz bombs: also known as doodlebugs were V-1 rockets (early form of cruise missile) packed with explosives and powered by a pulse jet engine. Over 9,000 were sent to bomb London and southeast Britain from June 1944. When the fuel ran out, they either glided or dived straight down and exploded on impact. Ninety-seven residents of Weybridge were killed by the Luftwaffe in WWII. Nine buzz bombs hit Weybridge from 1944.
My quarter-Ukrainian blood (maternal grandfather) boils at the inequity of what is happening over there right now. I am also frustrated by the seeming inability of the Western nations (US and NATO) to effectively throw their considerable power against Putin’s forces. I say Putin’s forces rather than Russian forces because it seems evident that many of the Russian citizens do not want any kind of war either. Sadly, throughout history despotic leaders have forced their people to fight unwanted wars.
I can understand the West not wanting to precipitate a Third World War by overtly confronting Putin but perhaps we should collectively have the balls to do just that. Must we see an entire nation reduced to piles of rubble and dead bodies? Must these courageous people of Ukraine be destroyed and subjugated to an overwhelming force, while we sit on the sidelines going, “Tsk, tsk, how terrible”?
Is this not symptomatic of a world browbeaten, lied to and deceived for decades to the point where we can no longer stand up to be counted?
The truth is that we are in a global state of confusion and fear. We are no longer able to differentiate between right and wrong. The days when the population of a small island off the coast of Europe stood up and said “No” to another demented madman no longer exist – other than for those who are desperately defending Kiev and the rest of their country, for the simple reason it is THEIR country!
I would not presume to equate my wartime adventures with the terrible conditions facing the citizens of Ukraine right now, but I can recall the horrors of a world at war. It’s not something I ever want to see again, especially for my children and grandchildren.
Those of us who have teamed up to help ExoBrain move over the finish line and become a weapon of truth and integrity that will provide at least a modicum of sanity for our puzzled planet, should also do whatever we can to persuade our various nations to stand up and crush the Bully of the Baltics. If we don’t, we could well see the madness spread across the globe.
World Wars are not a game we should ever consider playing again!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.