Sit tight, keep quiet

keep still, no lights

No emotions, no tears

no rows, no fights

Avoid confrontations

in a tin pot shelter

As hearts are beating

helter-skelter 

 

A belief in the mask

around necks to protect

but in reality a token

of advice misguided

and broken

with instructions

to lessen the panic

amid all the destruction 

 

Blacked out, sirens sounding

like a cry from the wild

the rat a tat tat

of smoking gunfire

fills the eyes and ears

with smoke and fear

apprehension always near

 

Vera Lynne never sang

about the carnage

or the blood, or the floods

of tears for the wasted years

as we strived to overcome

the evil one, but anyway...we won

Who did you think

You were kidding?