| Butler Pennsylvania 15
The Bombing of Butler The planes would come in from the West at an angle, so as to run up along the valley to destroy our mills, then lay a carpet of bombs one mile wide straight up across our town, guiding on the Court House then out to the hill beyond where the hospital stands then further still to our railroad yards and the bridge across. Twenty merciless runs they'd make. And whatever still stood would be ground in drafts of fire—. Dresden burnt into memory murmuring: Try to imagine. And those who survived would gather along the creek where water soothed or in our woods under protecting wings while one long dirge of soft wailing would be heard for what had been. Then one among them would rise, aged now and enlightened, with that one word empowered: Rebuild— And it would happen. Next Home |
| Author's Note
The author visited Dresden shortly after the reunification of East and West Germany in 1989. On arriving he went up the high Rathaus tower to have a panoramic view of the city and the surroundings. Looking out to the west he could almost hear the waves of bombers approaching the city. Overhead they would have dropped their bombs into the area he was looking at, then curve off to the left and vanish in the western sky leaving the city in flames and ruins. The thought occurred to him that this could some day happen to cities at home, even though it is hard for Americans to conjure up that possibility, the country being protected by two oceans and great distances from potential aggressors. However, the need to think that thought was the impulse that brought this poem about. May, 1991 |
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| This photograph of Dresden, taken in 1946, shows the view from City Hall out over the devastated city. In the foreground is an unscathed sculpture atop the City Hall tower. |
| Aerial view of Butler |