Looking up
looking round
always the possibility
of a telling noise
sound of a jet,
a missile's threat.
Hide and seek
on the beach,
theirs among
the broken down
buildings of fishing
now banned.
Scrap metal gatherers
small pickings
shards of once was,
scrabbling a living,
both family and friends ;
shouting out, playing.
Arrived from the sky
and nowhere to hide,
the only count-down
a pilot's machine ;
shield with arms
over their eyes.
Four boys found
not by the chase
or outstretched hands
or laughing tease.
Instead, seek and kill :
broken scatterings, like shells.