War Thunder Poem

 

War Thunder by Graham Foss

He’s gotta grind

to save mankind

He's got all night

to do it right

He's gotta get it done

in a Pee-Fifty-One

Gotta make up time

in his One-Oh-Nine

Aint no waiting on the runway when the siren goes

And the engines roar on the bless-ed Beaufort

Radio chatter, son of mine

Close out everything else

This is your time

The past has gone, and the future awaits

This glorious present is all it will take

A connection maybe to your family lode

Fighting, for blighty all over the globe

In some kinda deep level maybe

this is felt but not known

Hands on the joystick and feet on the pedals

Hidden talismans of your ancestor’s medals

Locked in and clicked in

Tapping the keys on five tons of tin

Take off with hope

But there is only ever one ending

Crash and burn

Reload and relocate

Up again, in a One – Ten

Guns blazing, purple hazing

Dive down on the noobs like vengeance

No quarter given or asked for in virtual airspace

This is it, the zone, the play and the player

Time hardly passes up in this layer

Whizzing and whipping

Gangster tripping

The beat of the drum and the beat of the heart

Death and glory, over and over

The fighters take the lower skies

Pure instinct, pure reaction

Sometimes though.

‘Player two has joined the game’

The announcer proclaims

Higher, the bombers,

the crew poised in position for the run

Wiser heads, but slower, more measured,

The air thinner, the pace slower, but none the less tense

Vapour trails mark the passage of these rectangular beasts

Our young sons seek out their place

The perfect place in heaven

The perfect place to be free and unfettered

From lowly concerns, down on the ground

Games drawn out on Eton’s fields

Can very soon become a more serious endeavour

I hope not for this life

Let the games be games with your feet on the ground

The important things are the dull things

The everyday is at least a day

A philosophy too refined for such a young head

Know this instead

There is only the fight, the grind

The climb up the tech tree

In-game currency

Random battles, Pee Vee Pee

War is hell, with a low ping and a single digit frame rate

Like Lockheed we go sideways through sound

Aero-space-age warriors

Born for the sky

Do or die

Again and again and again