Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/140

 114 GREGG GODDARD

��THE AIRMAN

Wild wind, and drear, beneath the pale stars blow- ing,

Whom do you hunt to-night ? Out of the west into the storm-cloud glowing

A biplane wings her flight.

In the grey day-dawn was there no returning,

No homewards for the dead : — Only a broken wing, a biplane burning,

A shattered airship shed !

O Nation proud, on whose red altar gladly

One more young Life is laid. Scatter the news — flutter the posters madly —

"Triumph of British raid!"

What of the Cross they brought to her — his Mother? Wanly her dumb lips smiled. Then whispered : " Give back him — I had no other — My Son — my only child."

— Gregg Goddard.

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