"Anything Anywhere"
Resting now in pasture here,
Meadows of memory, quiet this year.
Cleared the farms to take men to war,
Stones and plaques to remember them all.
Dakotas soared, now skylarks sing,
Wounded soldiers, died for country and king.
September forty four, the husky’s did howl,
Airborne on silent wings, then gliders, now owl.
Flying nightingales, in fear of the flak,
With no red cross, soaring under attack.
Broken men, mutilated by weapons they wield,
Return to rest safe in a Wiltshire field.
Huts they lined the roads at the Leigh,
Men slept in fields over which buzzards now cry.
A brief village built for a vital reason,
To support war machine and the killing season.
Ghosts of men remain in the sky,
The moon shines down from where they flew to die,
Fathers and sons, killed for a bridge or a beach,
Gone to their god, sacrificed for a future we’ve reached.
Now deer they hide and cattle they stare,
Omnia Passim on the wind, “anything anywhere”
Last post declared, young and old hear the call,
Tears and poppies they fall, to heroes them all.
By Vincent Povey
Inspired by the RCAF 437 Squadron who served at Blakehill Farm and motto is Omnia Passim (Anything Anywhere)