Read "Green Balls" by Paul Bewsher online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Sleep on, pale Bruges, beneath the waning moon, For I must desecrate your silence soon, And with my bombs' fierce roar and fiercer fire Grim terror in your tired heart inspire; For I must wake your children in their beds And send the sparrows fluttering on the leads. " -- _The Bombing of Bruges._
Overhead sounds the beating of many engines, and here and there across the stars I can see moving lights. The first two or three machines are already up. The carry-on signal has been given. A machine which has just left the aerodrome passes a few hundred feet overhead with a roar and a rush. Its dark shape blots out the stars, and I can see the long blue flames pouring back from the exhaust-pipes of the engines.