A TRIBUTE TO PEARL

 

 

It was a bright sunny morning on this darkest of days

So quiet, so peaceful, the most tranquil of days

 

The ships are so shiny all glittering at bay

And of course, and why not we are the USofA

 

PEARL—so proper so fitting a name

Lush green mountains and black sand for play

 

Sailors at rest, Army men too, don’t forget Air core and US Marines to

The WAF’s and the WAC’s and the Red Cross were their

So many so many yet few would be spared

 

Some folks are sleeping and some are at play

Worshipping and working on a warm winters day

 

Up on a mountain a few men and a new machine

A contraption called radar with a grid and a screen

 

One blip, two blips then so many more

It must be broken there can’t be yet more

 

Maybe there birds migrating from the north

My GOD they’re Japanese zeros from the carriers of war

 

Flying low so as not to be seen

I can see the pilot his face is serene

 

Sound general quarters and scramble the planes

Fire up the engines get the ships on the way

 

Too late, to late the bombs drop like rain

People are dying, their eyes full of pain

 

Torpedoes in the water hitting ship after ship

Flames all around us, death has us in its grip

 

Sixteen ships were destroyed that day

One thousand one hundred and two men of the Arizona at the bottom still lay

 

Two thousand four hundred and three in all died that day

Blessed are the peace makers so Your words say

 

I thought we were in heaven, paradise was swell

Now, fire and smoke and flames straight from hell

 

Help me, help me, oh God what has happened

Forgive me, forgive me, I rejected Your perfection

 

It has been seventy-five years since that God-awful day

And you’re still not forgotten, as long as I have a say

 

So this tribute I write to those brave men of yesterday

God bless you and thank you, you’re still heroes today!

 

Some day it will be over, the war, death and pain

God will give us His peace, eternal life, no sadness or pain

 

So sleep now, be at rest till that upcoming day

When the Lord calls us home in a splendid array!

 

 

By: Frank Biela