War in Ukraine: A Warning to Russia: BEWARE (Revised Edition)
Written in 2016,
Russians would do well
to reflect upon what their
‘god and their king’
has led them into … …
Friday eve already
How is it in Larnaca?
Are the boys resting?
They'd better not be giving you hassle!
The house is quiet here …
Albemarle slumbers
The sands of Akrotiri
catch in the wind,
causing a stir,
awaking souls in the deep night
as winter goads
the inflatables from Syria,
and the lines between
Nicosia and London quicken,
Screens flashing
Intel increasing.
Plans in draft
Alerted civil servants
Populations of both
desirous to extend the hand of friendship,
Nervous by how much
that extension must be
Across the base in an underground bunker,
A different plan - a Battle Plan - draft
Amended,
Signed off
Promulgated
Officers of air rank
consult combined chiefs in Whitehall.
That steely resolve,
That spirit of the ruthless 'Few'
as alive today as eighty-two years,
its forbear...
The order from Number Ten
No compunction,
No doubts
No uncertainty …
THE LAUNCH …
Planned pin-point-precision attacks
The Three Ps
Benighted leaders of Isil
caliphate and Levant
latter-day Nazi fiefdoms
There are scores to settle
A caged pilot burned alive
Cranwell honour to be restored
the RJAF's honour in the hands of the RAF
Just some of the reckonings,
come that order …
Men and Women of aircrew
who know the task at hand
Whose hands do not shake
as flight crew type in the weapons system coodinates
and on her commander's order;
she will, with calm and stilleto precision
fire the missile at her hapless target.
Crews are in no illusion
about what might happen
if they fall into this vile creature's medieval hands.
There is confidence too.
Confidence that umbrella protection
will safeguard flightplans
from coming into contact with the Russian Bear
It is a curious war
one of the most complicated in a hundred years
and made worse by attempting to underpin bits of religion
and old mens' stories
and old wives' tales
But the 'writing is on the wall'
and those benighted souls know it
and sense the heat now being turned upon them
There is a time for peace
There is a time for war
There is a time for diplomacy
There is a time for negotiation
There is a time for giving and taking
But at this hour
the options are few
the levels of security heighten
the levels of conversation deepen
Soon it will be December time
Division bells
Whips
All out War
The Tornado is unleashed
12 May 2022
All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Composed 18 November 2016
Last published 12 May 2022
Banner Image Courtesy UK MOD GR4 45155234 and to whom all rights are reserved and to the photographer
