COLOGNE

  Like the bony fingers of a long dead hand 
Rising from the rubble of a destroyed land. 
 The church spires pointed at the sky. 
 As if begging God please tell us why 
 What have we done,that you would close your eye's 
And leave your people here to die? 

  The naked spires of the Cathedral of Cologne 
   Were blackened by the fires the bombers had sown. 
 The rubble that closed the city thorofares 
 The blackened walls, the burned out stairs. 
 Our eye's couldn't believe what we saw there 
 A scene of destruction beyond compare. 

 The bombers had came night after night 
 They even came in broad daylight. 
 They left the city a burning hell 
 Mile after mile a blackened shell. 
 From under the rubble seeped a horrible smell 
 The smell of death we knew so well. 

 We entered the town square on our knees 
 Bullets buzzing around like bee's. 
  We had been ordered to proceed 
 And capture the city with all speed 
          Let nothing slow you down or impede. 
The river Rhine has just been crossed indeed. 

 Here in the rubble my friend Roy died 
 Here in the rubble was the first time I cried. 
 He raised up just as a machine gun fired 
That is how my best friend expired. 
 He was a friend liked and admired. 
  And I suddenly realized that I was tired. 

 We are at the Rhine the end is in sight 
 And Roy had to lose the fight. 
 But I held his hand and watched him die 
And for all my life I wondered why 
  But for a few more inch's it could have been I. 
 And God in Heaven heard me cry. 

  The spires of Cologne's Cathedral looked down 
 At Roy's body on the ground. 
  As an Angel came and took his soul away 
 And we who lived to fight another day 
  Just left his broken body where it lay. 
   Sleep well my friend, There is no more to say. 
 
~Elmer Ake~