Arrival

Air Raid

That chilling cry attends
The night darkened country
And gives notice that fear is founded.
The crump and boom of bombs
And bellowing jet-pipes
Blow dim fanfare of my descent
Upon the uncaring platform
I am here.

Nervy voices whisper guttering Slav
Glowing eyes of fag ends
And red-shrouded torches
Flicker and dance in the gloom
As some distant mountain there
Stands tormented by roaring carrion
Clawed at by screeching rockets
And that chilling siren wails.

Inside the silent carriage we watch
The dull, volcanic burst of bombs
Spewing rage, and black columns
Belching into baleful sky of charred ochre.
Flinch as streaking Migs and heavy Jastreb yell
Their deafening threats and we, blind
Follow their screams, low thundering over
The cowering city.

Too late, in slothful riposte
Some gunners chase the circling roar
Impudent cannon hockle and spit up and up
Elegant tracer salmon-pink and peach
Only we, few curious fools
Linger above ground
In mesmeric fascination
At this profanity of power and hate.

Battered suburbs away to the east
Inacquiescent their presence is revealed
By furnace-whitened roofs
And smashed tram, spewing flame
From twisted, shredded steel
Draws in the red-starred flying circus
To evacuate their dreadful bombs
And come around again.

Blackout

Shapes drift by in the dark
Grunting, shuffling, the whiff
Of smoke or the cheap rasp of drink
What to do. Where to go.
At the station's end
Across a street dim sign 'Hotel'
Shines a harlot's smile of welcome
And I stumble, as a child towards it.

Lines of taxis, engines
Rumbling for warmth
Headlamps black taped,
Save for a chink of light
To show the way, drivers huddling
For safety. Fag ends glow in unison
Like dying embers fanned
By the mountain's wind.

Up marble steps to scruffy desk
Crude timbers propped sharp against doors,
Clothed in lumpen sandbag coats
Over helpless windows bound in futile
Yellowing masking tape
And grateful, enter the bright,
Life-giving light, to be charged
Double for a room.

Zagreb, 1991.