The alarm sounds like a dull clanging bell.
Sailors in their battle gear run for posts.
“Hatches are closed and zebra set!” we yell.
A surprise in store for Iraqi hosts.
The towers rose from the sea like islands.
They were made of steel, rubber, and plastic.
Arab men scrambling to flee in bands,
Their boats speeding away, faces frantic
Big guns sound, blazing fire and hot lead fly,
Metal islands reduced to flaming spire.
Retaliation ordered from the sky,
Mission complete, we leave ocean afire.
Our first taste of battle went as was planned.
New sea stories to tell when we hit land.
© Copyrights G. Jones 2006
"This is a poem based on my memory of an attack on Iraqi oil rigs in the Persian Gulf. My destroyer, along with two others, was ordered by Ronald Reagan to attack the Iraqi oil rigs in retaliation for their attacks upon unarmed tankers in the Persian Gulf in 1986."
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