AIRFIELD GHOSTS

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vacant control tower hisses in static~  
a Morse code signaling the absence of departing flights.
B-24s dissolve into prairie stars,  
fuel streaks fading like old film burns.  
Midnight mechanics still roll toolbox shadows  
across tarmacs swallowed by prairie crabgrass. 
 
a windsock flaps—empty, always empty~  
counting dead radio waves as prayer beads.  
barracks hum with old Glenn Miller,  
though the record needle’s been stuck for decades.  
midnight taxi lights still trace the runway,  
guiding no one home.  

airfield ghosts wear leather bomber jackets, 
not shrouds, sighing at how quietly war forgets.  

*“The southwest corner of Kansas was once home to Liberal Army Airfield. For 27 months, from April 1943 to September 1945, the desolate plains of Kansas were alive with the deep throaty roar of the B-24 Liberator. The Liberal Army Airfield trained approximately one-quarter of all B-24 commanders. Residents of the area recall few days and nights in which they did not hear the familiar roar of the big Pratt & Whitney engines flying overhead. What was once a wheat field, a symbol of peace, became thousands of feet of concrete runways used to train pilots for vital World War II missions. To this day, many of the runways and structures of the base still survive. Years have passed since the inception and closure of the base, but its history will always be a part of Liberal, Kansas. (Source: frugalfrigate.com/book/9781467162289)”

The Liberal Army Airfield was also where my father spent his wartime years servicing the B-24 Liberators.  My mother was working as a civil service clerk at the airfield.  The two of them met in August 1944 and were married in November 1944 at the Airfield Chapel. 

you may read the related memoir vignette at         poetrysoup.com/short_stories/ill_be_seeing_you_13598

12th gradenostalgiarememberwarfree verse

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