Meridian

In the burning daze

Of a natural light

I took a long drive into the evening

On the barracks road

Past the general's eyes

Down to the seawall where the waves stand by

The enormous lull

Then a roar in the sky

And then the searchlights over the airfield

And over the ocean winging low

I saw the first wave

And the flares that fall

Like fireflies on the islands

In the boom and swell

From the waves to the heights

Reverberations of our old lives

Like a golden bell

That would ring through the night

And then the front moves

And we raise our eyes

In the silence of the islands