In the burning daze Of unnatural light I took a long drive Into the evening On the barracks road Past the generals' 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