Inside D Day

INSIDE D DAY by JOHN M. ARRIBAS The weather is really lousy rained all day I’m so nervous and edgy, I’m learning to pray We are prepped and ready to complete our tasks Now’s the moment, the hour, for the invasion of France My buddy tall and skinny, we call him Guana From some little town near Birmingham, Alabama He talks funny with a southern nasal drawl I’m from Pittsburgh, he’s teaching me to say yall It’s 3 AM and I haven’t slept well for several days Fully geared, scared, but with a positive gaze Brother graduated high school may enlist this summer Heard the last word a dying man says is mama There’s 24 men in this landing craft, all are grim Knowing survival of an amphibious landing is slim Heads down, you’ll get a good look soon enough I’m wondering how many will die scaling that bluff Our section of beach has the code name Omaha Noise, sirens, destroyer firing a constant pah, pah, pah Racing to shore, any moment, a need to quickly disembark I wonder if the red roses are blooming at Columbus Park? There’s incoming ordinance, you hear it pinging on the boat When I exit, if it’s too deep, I’ll drop everything, so I can float The boat has stopped, quite a distance from the shore Heart pounding, mouth bone dry, awaiting, drop of the door I look at my buddies, all silent, some their eyes closed Lips moving, a rosary, the hope of survival fully exposed We’ve trained for this exercise over and over again If we disembark rapidly, we won’t lose too many men Door drops, men begin exiting, lives hanging on a thread Wading their way to the shore thru the dying and dead Got to the beach, looking for cover, I see my friend Guana Suddenly I’m looking up at the sky: Did I come this far to die? My thoughts all go childhood, I can only think of my mama