Dallas Veteran’s Day Air Show Tragedy

Two warbirds flying in the sky

Magnificent tools of war in an era gone by

They met as fatalistic birds about to die

For six brave men their widows will cry,

Just a seasonal airshow that’s all

It was the crowd they were trying to enthrall

A celebration now something that became appalled

The fire in the sky as they fall,

Two aircraft that met the call of duty long ago

Amazing what tragedy can bestow

It just doesn’t seem to be fair don’t you know?

If only it had just been new fallen snow,

Two air warriors from another place and time

Ending in a fate more bitter than the taste of lime

The loss of man and machine seeming like a crime

For them fate turned on a dime,

The proud inventions of liberation from yesteryear

Those in the crowd and the families have shed their tears

Now we look back through the greatest generation’s mirror

Wishing their gallantry was with us here,

Like two ghosts rematerializing from the past

Their operational life was not meant to last

Wives and onlookers stood aghast

Now the Stars and Stripes are at half mast,

A P-63 King Cobra and B-17 met in a sky of blue

Set to entertain but their world went askew

They each took off right on cue

Now ghosts once flown by the brave and the few.