Lady Be Good, by Lennart Lundh

Wreckage of B-24D Lady Be Good (photography series), by unidentified United States Air Force photographer (USA), 1959.

Lady Be Good (April 1943)
 
The men you carried once
might be on Broadway
for all the good it would do.
Benghazi is, in real terms,
no closer than that gray desert.
 
They’ve set off across hills and
plains of sand instead of the sea
they thought waited below the dark.
Given a week their trek will be
complete for infinity’s hours.
 
Eventually, as it must,
the desert will finish
you as well, as you
finished your final flight
on its deceptive waves.
 
The slide into not being
will take as long as
the slide between low dunes,
though one is measured in years
and one eternity's seconds.
 
Rust won't do it. Left long enough,
you'll be blasted to atomic thinness
by your carpet carried on the air.
The truths within your mystery,
your memory, alone remain behind.

Lennart Lundh

This poem was first published in Poems Against Cancer 2014, by Lennart Lundh.

Lennart Lundh is a poet, short-fictionist, historian, and photographer. His work has appeared internationally since 1965. Len can be found on Facebook, and his books are available from the VisionsWords store on Etsy, as well as on Amazon.